> Do you mean none of them predicted the web?

I mean the whole social, cultural and economic impact and, yes, the web is a very important part of it.

But there were a few more things in that early era, besides the web (e.g.:ICQ, IRC, Napster).

The article is in the September 1990 issue, and the first webpage was deployed a few months later. Obviously, if any of those people envisioned the web or anything like it, they would have done it themselves. 'Obviously' is usually used in hindsight.

this is not making the point well -- in 1988 there were multiple, competing protocols that ran over whatever the carrier medium was.. TCP/IP was nascent, and did not route as we know it today.