THE MOMENT BILL GATES WAS MOCKED FOR THINKING INTERNET WILL BE THE NEXT BEST THING

One of the most innovative computer programmers of all time, Bill Gates, was once made fun of for believing that the internet would be the next big thing. It takes a lot of work to doubt the co-founder of Microsoft, which is currently the second-biggest company in the world, after Apple. Gates’ opinion on the internet wasn't taken so seriously by audience members attending The Late Show with David Letterman, as they found the whole thing pretty hilarious. Ironically, the brief video has been circulated widely on the internet, and for the majority of us, it was first brought to our notice when Elon Musk retweeted it on X in 2022. "What about this internet thing?" is a question posed to Gates during the interview. Are you familiar with that at all? In response, he says, "Sure." The audience then started to chuckle as Letterman added: "What the hell is it exactly?"

As stated by Gates, "It's crazy what's going on. It's become a place where people are publishing information so everybody can have their own homepage, companies are there, and the latest information." It is possible to send emails to individuals." If only he knew what else the internet would go on to do. "It is the big new thing," the tech expert claimed. Letterman, though, didn't seem to be persuaded. "Indeed, but you know it's easy to criticise something you don't fully understand, which is my stance in this case", he said.

"However, I recall a few months back, there was, like, a big breakthrough announcement that they were going to broadcast a baseball game on the Internet, or on some computer deal. You could have a baseball game playing on your computer, and I was just thinking, 'Does radio ring a bell?'."

As Gates tried to clarify the distinction between the two, the mid-1990s crowd erupted in laughter. "It's not a huge difference, but you can listen to the baseball game whenever you want, too," he added. Letterman then asked if it’s 'stored in one of your memory deals', which Gates confirmed was the case.

We all know who had the last laugh, though. The United States military's ARPANET computer network project actually used the internet for the first time in the 1960s. Universities began using it for research by the 1980s, and Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web—which we use today—in 1989. Public access to the internet was made possible very quickly, altering our world forever.