CORBA was going to unify everything. SOAP was going to replace REST before REST existed. UML was going to make code unnecessary. XML was the answer to every question. Applets were the future of the web. CASE tools were going to automate programming. Expert systems were going to replace doctors. WAP was the mobile internet. Second Life was the metaverse, fifteen years early. Blockchain was going to replace databases. NoSQL was going to replace SQL. Then SQL came back. Microservices were going to simplify architecture. They didn't. The Semantic Web was going to make machines understand meaning. Google Glass was going to change how we see the world.
Each one arrived with conference keynotes, breathless coverage, and absolute certainty.
Each one taught the same lesson: the technology that survives is never the most impressive. It's the one that integrates cleanly, scales without drama, and solves a problem people actually feel.
The best technologies don't announce themselves. They just become invisible.