World Changers

Isn't it time we stopped talking about things that will "change the world"?

This comes up because of a recent column by Internet columnist Guy Kewney in which he extols the virtues of Microsoft's Passport" Passport is a "roamable" Internet identity that provides single sign-in and profile services for the World Wide Web. "It may not use current Microsoft technology," predicts Kewney. "Nonetheless, it will make e-commerce easier, safer, more popular. It will change the world."

There it is. It will change the world. Okay, Microsoft Passport sounds like good technology. But world-changer? Nah.

Book reviewer Jonathan Yardley recently plugged the words "Changed the World" into Amazon.com, and his search produced 309 items. Among them: the color mauve, the codfish, the Fender bass, radar, clocks, the U.S. women's soccer team, photographs, the Model T Ford, canned food, coast-to-coast auto races of the early 1900s, Christopher Columbus, glass, flowers, the Bible, banana pie, 12 lesbian...