Miscellaneous


 * A $1,000 personal computer can perform about a trillion calculations per second.
 * Personal computers with high-resolution visual displays come in a range of sizes, from those small enough to be embedded in clothing and jewelry up to the size of a thin book.
 * Cables are disappearing. Communication between components uses short-distance wireless technology. High-speed wireless communication provides access to the Web.
 * The majority of text is created using continuous speech recognition. Also ubiquitous are language user interfaces (LUIS).
 * Most routine business transactions (purchases, travel, reservations) take place between a human and a virtual personality. Often, the virtual personality includes an animated visual presence that looks like a human face.
 * Although traditional classroom organization is still common, intelligent courseware has emerged as a common means of learning.
 * Pocket-sized reading machines for the blind and visually impaired, "listening machines" (speech-to-text conversion) for the deaf, and computer-controlled orthotic devices for paraplegic individuals result in a growing perception that primary disabilities do not necessarily impart handicaps.
 * Translating telephones (speech-to-speech language translation) are commonly used for many language pairs.
 * Accelerating returns from the advance of computer technology have resulted in continued economic expansion. Price deflation, which had been a reality in the computer field during the twentieth century, is now occurring outside the computer field. The reason for this is that virtually all economic sectors are deeply affected by the accelerating improvement in the price performance of computing.
 * Human musicians routinely jam with cybernetic musicians.
 * Bioengineered treatments for cancer and heart disease have greatly reduced the mortality from these diseases.
 * The neo-Luddite movement is growing.