On this last point, is there any documentation of the role of the Internet in the development of the tea party movement?
On this last point, is there any documentation of the role of the Internet in the development of the tea party movement?
"The home will double as a place of employment" - We easily have the technology to do this and I'd guess 80% or more of jobs could be done from home yet the established pre-information technology culture keeps us driving into the office every day.
"Home-based shopping will permit consumers to control manufacturing directly" - Services like Amazon have made a lot more available but the products are largely the same. The technology exists for far greater customization but the profit margin would be lower so no one has done it.
"A new profession of information ''brokers'' and ''managers'' will emerge" - This has happened but rather than "monitor" politicians and corporations these brokers tend to work for them more often than not.
"The ''extended family'' might be recreated if the elderly can support themselves through electronic homework" - I'd concede e-mail has made it easier to keep in touch with my grandparents but beyond that technology hasn't done that much for me. Heck, one of my grandparents has an iPhone now and we don't even do the weepy video chats like you see in the Apple commercials.
I guess you could say it has created some diversity in politics by giving voice to the minority but the two biggest Political Internet phenomenons of the last decade (Howard Dean and Ron Paul) didn't get anywhere near being in actual power.
CafePress, Zazzle, Shapeways, etc. I'll agree that it isn't as wide-spread as you might have expected from the prediction, but per-order production does exist.
Also, Howard Dean and Ron Paul HAVE actual power. Sure, they aren't the president, but to imply that governors, senators and congresspersons don't have any "REAL" power undersells both the positions and the work involved.
You missed the words "White-Collar" in there. Or perhaps you added an extra 0 by mistake.
The technology to do that is 3D printing, but it's at a very early stage right now. I think they got this right in 1982 but underestimated how long it would take -- maybe because they didn't understand how much competitive manufacturing depends on scale and offshoring.