"I expect to see a lot of household appliances on the Net by 2010, as well as autos and other mobile devices"
About this Quote
The specific intent reads like agenda-setting. By naming appliances, cars, and “other mobile devices,” Cerf nudges manufacturers and policymakers toward a networked default: connectivity as a feature, not an add-on. It’s also a quiet assertion about standards. If everything is going online, everything will need common languages, addresses, authentication - the boring plumbing that determines who gets power later. A prophecy that doubles as a blueprint.
The subtext, visible in hindsight, is that convenience will be the public selling point while surveillance and lock-in ride shotgun. Networked appliances aren’t just smarter; they’re reportable, updatable, remotely controllable. “Autos” on the Net suggests not only navigation but telemetry, insurance incentives, corporate gatekeeping, and new failure modes where a software patch can brick a physical object.
Context matters: mid-2000s optimism about ubiquitous computing and “always on” connectivity, before the cultural backlash had a vocabulary for data extraction. Cerf’s 2010 timestamp is slightly off, but the arc is dead on - and the costs, as usual, were not in the press release.
Quote Details
| Topic | Internet |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Cerf, Vinton. (2026, January 18). I expect to see a lot of household appliances on the Net by 2010, as well as autos and other mobile devices. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-expect-to-see-a-lot-of-household-appliances-on-9694/
Chicago Style
Cerf, Vinton. "I expect to see a lot of household appliances on the Net by 2010, as well as autos and other mobile devices." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-expect-to-see-a-lot-of-household-appliances-on-9694/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I expect to see a lot of household appliances on the Net by 2010, as well as autos and other mobile devices." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-expect-to-see-a-lot-of-household-appliances-on-9694/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.



