Pizza-Fax use cases are the perfect smoke-and-mirrors demos that point toward where a new disruptive system could go.

· Bits and Bobs 9/8/25
  • Pizza-Fax use cases are the perfect smoke-and-mirrors demos that point toward where a new disruptive system could go.
    • In 1994, Pizza Hut's PizzaNet let you order pizza online in Santa Cruz—but all it did was route your order to Wichita and back, then have someone call you to verify.
    • By 1995, World Wide Waiter in Silicon Valley had an even better trick: their web form just faxed your order to the restaurant.
    • Pure theater!
    • A CGI script sending a fax to a confused pizzeria.
    • But that theater was the scaffolding for the future.
    • The users didn't need to know it was held together with duct tape and fax machines.
    • They just needed to see that ordering food online was possible.
    • This is the beauty of early-stage demos: they don't have to be real, they just have to be believable enough to bootstrap belief in the future.
    • The shared belief encourages people to invest in the future, and make it real.

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