The time is ripe. Whether you know it or not, the technology Microsoft is developing already plays a role in re-establishing links in a human condition that feels increasingly rushed, fragmented, isolated and desperate. Today, despite a growing economy and full employment, it takes two family members to achieve the economic gains it once took only one person to earn. Yet, there's no security. Also, people face ever-increasing personal responsibility in critical life decisions about everything from careers and financial planning to health care, insurance, education and retirement planning.
Technology can help individuals sort out such crucial choices.
There has to be more to the convergence of TV and the Internet than just new forms of entertainment. Meanwhile, the world's economy is shifting almost as fast as technology. The heads of industries driving the innovations around the shift to a world economy won't become just important technical and business leaders, but important figures in reshaping public and social policy. That will happen either in a de facto manner or consciously. The dark side of technology and re-engineered business process designs is that fewer people can do much more work.