The Mystery of the Hype Cycle

What does this diagram suggest? A mountain hut on top of a mountain? Mount Fuji erupting? No, no, this is a "hype cycle" proposed by Gartner, a cutting-edge technology research firm. It reads, "This technology is moving from its infancy toward peak expectations, but is then expected to take more than 10 years to pass the disillusionment stage and become widely adopted." Incidentally, this represents the current state of a technology known as the "machine customer," a future in which AI will do all the shopping for people. However, this hype cycle is often at the mercy of trends. Technologies often disappear without a trace, or disappear only to reappear, and no matter how promising a technology may be, its future is never guaranteed. Looking at it from another perspective, describing it here motivates humans to try to make it a reality, so perhaps it turns out to be accurate.