In the early days of the internet, there were roughly 3 categories of views I remember:

1. Brick and mortar is dead.

2. The internet will die.

3. What is the business model? (this one still seems to exist to this day to some extent, lol)

Reality fell between 1 and 2.

There are a lot of things that people were saying were fads that ended up being fads. There are also a lot of things that people were saying were fads that weren't. Nobody knows. Anyone who confidently says "AI is inevitable" or "AI is just a fad" is full of shit. They don't have a crystal ball, and they don't know what the future holds.

skepticism is so shamed around here.

just because it was wrong once doesn't mean its never wrong. And was it really that wrong? The internet is great but would it be the worst thing in the world if we didn't live our lives around it?

I would say that it is closer to an Internet to which you are not invited to.

[dead]