信息技术产生的经济利益能否比得上技术革命下的经济利益?因特网的拥护者大胆预言,因特网是继轮子以来最伟大的发明,它将使世界发生重大改变,将使旧经济教科书成为废纸。然而,怀疑论者却认为,计算机和因特网的重要性远不如蒸汽机、电报或电力。他们认为,IT应该是“无足轻重的玩具”(insignificant toys)的缩写,一旦技术泡沫破裂,经济上的影响将和17世纪的郁金香热破裂后的影响相去不远。 Can the economic benefits of information technology match the economic benefits of technological revolution? Advocates of the Internet boldly predict that the Internet, as the greatest invention following the wheel, will make major changes in the world and will make the old economic textbook a waste paper. However, skeptics argue that computers and the Internet are far less important than steam engines, telegraphy or electricity. They argue that IT should be the acronym for “insignificant toys,” and that once the tech bubble breaks down, the economic impact will not be far removed from the effects of the hot rupture of tulips in the 17th century.