Even if you don't share the same conjectures as the video's author regarding these "ceremonies", you have to conclude that there was at least something there, beneath the surface. These events were just too bizarre to be "face value", and even to a casual glance they were clearly built from the bottom-up on symbols. It'd be interesting to see who wrote and directed them: what were their world views?

On a sort of similar note, I thought that this 1993 episode of "The Computer Chronicles" was sort of frustrating, as software CEOs were already talking back then about how to fleece the consumer. Philippe Kahn said, paraphrasing: "Maybe software should work like, instead of paying for the program up front, every time you click on a button within it, you get billed fifty cents? Then at the end of the month, your operating system says 'you owe twenty dollars and thirty four cents'."

He also said something to the effect of, "we need to sell the software for really cheap: we'll build the user base, then decide how to make money." Obviously, the industry did indeed go that way. Think of how many times have you read, "super popular Web site such-and-such has literally never made a cent of profit."

Meanwhile, Esther Dyson said, paraphrasing again: "In the future people won't own disks or even boxes: software and data will just be 'up there' [pointing at the sky], and the user will just have the parts of the user interface they're using beamed to their screens." That's a successful prediction of not just "the cloud", but also Klaus Schwab's "you will own nothing, and be happy."