I suggested to my brother Todd, who is making the leap from hardware into programming, that
the next big revolution will be in genetic engineering.
We’ll have microbes designed to make food, fuel, and plastic; they’ll clean up pollution and in
general allow us to master the manipulation of the physical world for a fraction of what it costs
now. I claimed that it would make the computer revolution look small in comparison. Feedback
technology (which is of course easy to do in science fiction). An experienced writer knows that
the story is never about the things; it’s about the people. Genetics will have a very large impact
on our lives, but I’m not so sure it will dwarf the computer revolution (which enables the genetic
revolution)—or at least the information revolution. Information is about talking to each other:
yes, cars and shoes and especially genetic cures are important, but in the end those are just
trappings. What truly matters is how we relate to the world. And so much of that is about
communication
Thinking In Java