You'll hear the sounds of the birds chirping outside the window. You'll be able to smell the cooking. Perhaps the most radical innovation will be the realization of special touch-sensitive clothing that will wirelessly connect to PCs and allow people to hug and kiss each other and even engage in sexual relations even though they are hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Though many might be frightened of such startling changes, Harkins sees the advances as a means to greatly enhance human life. He believes realistic virtual contact will allow people to maintain highly personalized relationships over great gulfs of physical distance, a true boon in a world where work and travel keeps people apart.
People are sick of it.
They want to maintain a balance between domestic and personal living and productive and commercial living. So this is not impractical, it's very practical. The challenge for society is to ensure technological access for everyone, he said. But I do think you're dead in the water economically. The cyberrevolution's just getting started.