On the way back from a week of vacation in Europe after Teched Barcelona I finished Rainbows End. In this book Vernor Vinge has influenced my view of what the technology should\can do in the future. A few trends from today that Vernor picks up on and extends:

1. Wearable computing – Will IPod and Zune grow up to full wearable computing power? I love how Vernor solved the user interface problem!
2. Ubiquitous hi-rate connectivity – My $20/month EvDo is just the starts
3. Search and Analysis of Information – With so much information in electronic format, finding information and correlating trends is more important than ever
4. Social Networking – What would sites like YouTube and Soapbox turn into with a good mix of 1?
5. Large truly local storage – We just released the first baby step there ;-)

Have other folks read Rainbows End? What trends did you pick up on?

My wife asked me if this was a positive or negative view of the future –It is a strangely hard question to answer. While there is something compelling about all the above, there is something scary as well, I guess that is what makes the book compelling.

BTW, has anyone cataloged all the literary references in the text? I'd love to check them out, if they are already published ;-)