Now back in 1977, 4.3 billion IP addresses must have seemed like a lot. However, what is more amazing, that we've used up 4.3 billion addresses or the fact that if each of those IP addresses went on sale for $13.50 each, Bill Gates (net worth of $58 billion) would be able to afford to buy them all and have enough left over for a large meatball sub and a Coke.
Back when the 8086, a sixteen-bit processor, was displacing the eight-bit 8080, I recall reading at least one industry pundit questioning the need for sixteen bits outside of mainframe computing. The moron pointed out that the main use of the eight-bit systems was word processing, and he asked, since characters are eight bits, where was the need for more?