The 20th century has seen considerable technological achievement that has had far-reaching consequences on the way people live and do business. The first half of the century saw remarkable developments in transportation with the automobile and the airplane and in communications with radio and television. These developments would not have been possible without associated advances in materials technology. The second half of the century has been characterized by the development of the computer (see the cover of this issue).

Nineteenth century futurists equated progress with scale. The bigger the better. One can only speculate on what these savants would say if introduced to what we currently call progress. Progress is now measured by how small you can make a device, how narrow you can make a conductor, and how many circuits you can fit onto the point of a pin (see Figure 1).