"The twilight of the twentieth century is driven by a mixture of technology and resources very like that which drove nineteenth-century America. This time, it is and software rather than and steel. Instead of s, we have a that links us as the railroads did, but at the speed of light. And, once again, this change is being driven by people from around the world, making possible an unprecedented level of economic growth. Workers may start out sewing , but chip plants and more diverse enterprises will eventually follow. In the nineteenth century, you had to cross an ocean to find economic opportunity, freedom from repression, or a respite from famine. The pioneers of the twenty-first century can stay put—their diaspora is to cyberspace. Still, we may not be able to gauge the real impact of the information revolution for fifty or sixty years more. Consider our cities, which in many cases have been transformed into artifacts of industrialization. Will large numbers of people begin to telecommute and, in that way, return to a pastoral America? Or will the cities somehow become even more necessary to our lives? Technomania, like its industrial equivalent in 1897, is a reminder that all this lies just beyond our knowing. What has happened already is bound to be very small in comparison to what lies ahead."