To keep this new economy strong, basic economic principles need to be adhered to. Engineers must be educated to consider all sectors of the economy, and not be swayed by Internet startup wealth. And as much as journalists and Wall Street financiers feel tempted to throw out the old rules, the old rules still very much apply. If the expected rate of return to investment were to decline, the investment would slow. While there appear to be considerable expectations in the business community, and possibly Wall Street, that the productivity acceleration has not peaked, experience advises caution . . . .
History is strewn with projections of technology that have fallen wide of the mark.
With the innumerable potential permutations and combinations of various synergies, forecasting technology has been a daunting exercise. So we've got this shiny-new, booming economy, and your engineering students are eager to learn how to jump on the bandwagon. Teaching in engineering, science, and technology fields has perhaps never been as exciting, or as maddening, as it is right now. Exciting because the rapid pace of development means that there are always new topics, new issues even entire new fields to keep you and your students interested. If that sounds like a recipe for an entrepreneurial-minded engineer, it's no accident.