The Internet Will Catastrophically Collapse in 1996
Ethernet Inventor: The Internet Will 'Go Spectacularly Supernova' and Collapse in 1996
Bob Metcalfe's December 1995 InfoWorld column promised a 1996 collapse that would leave only 'World Wide Web ghost pages'. The internet is still loading.
What was said
“But I predict the Internet, which only just recently got this section here in InfoWorld, will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.”
— Robert Metcalfe, Ethernet co-inventor and 3Com founder (InfoWorld column) · said Dec 4, 1995 · due 1996
1996 passed without the 'gigalapse'. Outages, yes; supernova, no. The ghost pages never materialised.
The fine print
InfoWorld column, December 4, 1995, headlined 'Predicting the Internet's catastrophic collapse and ghost sites galore in 1996'. His reasons included money ('A hurried search for greater fools to absorb projected continuing losses won't pan out this time'), overloaded links and security breaches. He pledged to eat his words if it didn't happen.
Later spin
At the Sixth International World Wide Web Conference in Santa Clara in April 1997, he argued that outages at Netcom, AOL and BBN counted, but acknowledged the 'gigalapse' hadn't happened. The crowd rejected a cake shaped like the column, so he blended a torn-up copy of the real column with liquid and ate it with a spoon.
Sources
- Predicting the Internet's catastrophic collapse and ghost sites galore in 1996 - InfoWorld (December 4, 1995), via the Internet Archiveaccessed 2026-09-29
- I Predict the Internet Will Soon Go Spectacularly Supernova and in 1996 Catastrophically Collapse - Quote Investigatoraccessed 2026-09-29
- Sage Who Warned Of Net's Collapse Eats His Words - news report archived on the FoRK mailing list (April 1997)accessed 2026-09-29
As of Oct 9, 2026
since it didn't happen
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