The Internet
Many are credited with the first visions of the Internet, but one particular technologist’s description sticks out. Nikola Tesla, in a 1909 interview with The New York Times, near perfectly describes the internet and smartphones, which wouldn’t be invented until a century later.
“It will only be necessary to carry an inexpensive instrument not bigger than a watch, which will enable its bearer to hear anywhere on sea or land for distances of thousands of miles,” he told the paper. “One may listen or transmit speech or song to the uttermost parts of the world. In the same way, any kind of picture, drawing, or print can be transferred from one place to another. It will be possible to operate millions of such instruments from a single station. Thus it will be a simple matter to keep the uttermost parts of the world in instant touch with each other.”
