By 2010, even your PC processing power will probably be fiber-optic instead of electronic. This should make for some great processing power. Every 18 months, processing power doubles while cost holds constant. Last Christmas I bought a new 500Mhz machine. By this Christmas, the 1.5GHz machines will be available.
Technology eventually becomes ubiquitous.
Even today, the child s toy Furby has more processing power than the Apollo Lunar Landing Module. And these devices are getting smaller and smarter. Imagine a service technician under the hood of your car, and instead of hooking up to a laptop, he connects his PalmPilot, which runs a pared down version of a diagnostic program, shoots the results up to a web page, and downloads a CPU adjustment. And, what if the solution to this one car s problems is evaluated and if it works, the web program spreads the solution like a vaccination to other cell phone-equipped cars with similar problems. It s not some pipe dream we are all waiting for.