Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Technology: Most of the Decade
Most likely to put the Post Office out of business. Futurists predicted that electronic mail -- computers talking to computers -- would soon replace the stamped envelope. They turned out to be wrong. The true expression of 21st century communications is one fax machine talking to another. Modern high- speed facsimile technology has opened the telephone lines to everything from blueprints to fingerprints, including unsolicited, unwanted faxes -- the 1980s version of junk mail.
Most likely to fail in the middle of a billion-dollar deal. It was the technological breakthrough that made where people make their calls ("I'm calling from the...
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