I’ve done a few looking-back posts for 2007, now for a looking-forward one. Speculate how you will, but the things in this list are all tried and true technology staples, and 2008 won’t be the year they go away, either.

We will never invent the perfect programming language. - As Brian Hayes calculates in one of the best programming essays I’ve read this year, ” The Semicolon Wars”, we have invented one new programming language per week since Fortran came out. And if you count beyond mere languages to platforms, development environments, frameworks, libraries, and so on, you probably get something like a new way to code every day of your life.

I like having so many languages to choose from, but isn’t it starting to look like we’re searching for a Holy Grail, here? And all we find are more and more ordinary cups.

We will never be free of misologists - Here is the Wiki definition of a misology. And here, published just recently, is a Slashdot story quoting a misologist. “The curse of knowledge”, says the misologist, “is the paradox that as our knowledge and expertise increase, our creativity and ability to innovate tend to taper off because the walls of the box we think inside of thicken along with our experience.” The trouble with this kind of reasoning is that it leads very dumb people to conclude: “I know nothing about this topic, and therefore I’m an expert at it!” Dear readers, you haven’t bumped into anybody on the Internet lately who thinks like that, have you?

The thing that all of the cult-of-anti-learning people miss is that while a naive novice can bring a fresh insight to the matter, there are inherent truths (2+2=4, gravity goes down, dogs bark, water is H20…) that are not just foolish misconceptions perpetuated by people who think inside the box. And if you’re going to make up a whole revolutionary theory of the universe out of your 52-button remote, why should we listen to you when you couldn’t be bothered to read the instructions to the remote?

Google still won’t be a monopoly. - Silly idea to even say it, but not a week goes by lately that I don’t see another blogger somewhere twittering “OMG! Google is so powerful! Think they’ll be the next Microsoft?” No. Nobody but the blogger does. Google has completely different aims, and not a single one of their services or products can yet be said to have a monopoly position.

Trolls will still flame open source. - Here’s just one of the latest disgusting attack pieces, published in Discover magazine’s website; do you feel betrayed? Open source is an easy target because it doesn’t sue you, and because there are always ten readers with stock in Microsoft and Adobe or careers based on running their products who will cheer you on. I quote Penguin Pete in sign #3 of his Signs of Linux Insecurity Complex: “Pigeons will always crap on the statues of heroes.” Yes, and they’ll also be found roosting in the eaves of the most respected buildings on the block, too.

LOLCATS will not die. - LOLCATS is here to stay, and in LOLCATS we trust!

OK, happy New Year, be safe, have fun, don’t drink too much, and if you have to drink and drive, for God’s sake don’t drive a camel!

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