Two relatively new technologies will make their way into general public exceptance within the next few years but won't be widely used mostly due to the price tags. One will be hybrid gas/ electric cars with astounding gas mileage. Of course there will be demands for governments to give tax rebates but the Treasury will say it amounts to a very expensive subsidy to the auto industry and a subsidy to the wealthy as well since the price will still remain higher than a similar style gas-only car.

The second technology to make it onto the market place with a bit more success than the new autos will be go-anywhere smart phones which combine satellite, land cell towers and home cordless phones into one. Although expensive compared to the best cell phones, they will be less expensive than the current satellite system phones. One horrendous problem will emerge which will give marketing a black eye and crash sales figures for a spell until rectified. That will be cross-service multi-billing nightmares when during one call, the phone switches from cell to satellite or from cell to home line or any combination which involves multiple service providers. Consumers will be hit with complex service charges (cell tower and satellite user fees and territorial taxes) which the main service contract companies can't even sort out even on one call. I see a fellow on CNN talking about a four dollar phone call having an additional five dollars tagged-on in fees and taxes with a long computer code as the only explanation. A person can be driving along talking while the phone switches from cell to satellite all the while tacking pennies in service charges onto the bill.

Due to Y2K, the governments will institute standards of certification for computer programmers, standards of coding and common interface and verification of quality before a software product goes out and comes into common use. Programs will have to be extensively tested and certified glitch-free by independent verification bodies before the companies get to put them on the market. This will have to be done to win the shattered confidence of the public to new computer software. Gone will be the days of software companies rushing product out the door half-ass tested, full of bugs and 'funny' features which require patches and forced upgrades. No other mass produced products on this earth can have the quality issues that software has presently and get away with it for long. Actually this prediction would normally go into the 'Distant Future' category but the issue and government action will start within a year. The implementation won't happen for at least three years.

A huge 'back to the land' and simplier times movement will take place. Some will be old style hippy groups, others hard-core survivalists, some religious and yet other groups are anti-government anarchists. Something for everyone. Still, the majority elect to maintain their creature comforts of modern life.

There won't be many announcements of spectacular technical or physical science breakthroughs over the next two years. Projects will be worked on and some ready for release but they won't be announced or released until the dust settles and the economy starts turning around.

I expect the USA to complete the intercept inter-continental ballistic missle program and have the system in place just under three years by fall of 2002.

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