Slate have a great story up on How To Suss Out Bad Tech Predictions.
The piece was inspired by an old Newsweek article (from the carefree days of 1995), which included this pearl: " The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works."
Back in '95, that made perfect sense. Today? Not so much.