Kent:  Who would use this new "grid" enough to make it viable ?  Some broadband connections are pretty fast, and I have heard cable connections are even faster.  But... for just the typical everyday person... how would the cost be justified ?  Just wondering...

I find it amazing how impatient I become with the speed...how do we keep up with the improved speeds being offered?

ok...way over my head...If I can figure it out and is easy to use, I'm all for it!

Kent, I can't imagine anything better than the Internet but it's amazing what people discover.

Kent, I hope that it is all what the article says that it is, and it would be amazing if it were faster than some of the networks that I have been on.  I only hope that it isn't cost prohibitive to get it up and running.

Kent - imagine a truly virtual tour - where you and your clients could meet in a digital listing, virtually walk around together, check out the features. From seperate locations.

You'd both have to own the all new Google-Vision Headset of course.

Wow! It seems that every month or so I hear about something new in the world of computing and I am really starting to feel behind. I agree with Michael about becoming inpatient with speed. Years ago dial-up was just fine, then broadband and I am on cable. I get frustrated when it gets "slow" but it is still a thousand times better than dial-up!

Pretty soon analog TV will be going away.  Who would have ever thought that we'd HAVE to pay to watch TV.  No cable or satelite, no TV.  I can see this happening to the internet some day, too.

Simply an amazing prospect.  wondrous innovation.

Interesting.  I havent' heard about this one.  Technology is moving faster than my mind can handle lately.

Nancy - Funny you should say that about having "to pay to watch TV."  It reminded me when I asked my father not too long ago why he drinks filtered tap water.  He told me, "That'll be the day I pay for water.  Next thing you know, they'll want me to pay for the air I breathe!!"  I thought it was funny at the time.  Nothing amazes me anymore.

Hi Kent. The holographic video conferencing possibility is a great fringe benefit of the Large Hadron Collider. Storage seems to be well understood by the scientists, however, I'm not certain that transmission and reception of data at the transfer rates they're forecasting will be such an easy task when applied commercially. Systems will have to be developed that can absorb loss characteristics, because of the quantity of data, which will insure consistent transfer rates. Thanks for the fascinating post and a glimpse into this important scientific discovery.

Kent,

The holographic video thing would be fascinating.  I'd have to get dressed to sit in front of the computer (or whatever puts me in the hologram) though. 

Mike in Tucson

Karen Anne - thanks for being the first to comment.  Who would use this?  Anybody & everybody who can!  The internet itself was developed to share data amongst research and educational institutions...and what a wondrous thing it has evolved into at present state.  The cost to bring this to the mass public will be enormous at first, then get cheaper and easier as we go along.  Who will absorb the cost?  We all will over time, gladly.

Michael - I know what you mean--sometimes I feel like the monster plant, Audrey, in Little Shop Of Horrors:  FEED ME!

John - never fear:  you're using the 'net now, this is going to just be the next evolution.  TVs today are much more sophisticated than 50 years ago--but easier to use.

Kay - it is amazing, and continues to be so on a daily basis!  Thanks for stopping by.

Tony & Darcy - it is already up and running on a limited access basis.  I don't foresee this becoming available to the masses in the next 5 years, but 10?  Probably.  Commercial interests will pay the cost, as well as by subscription, which will become more affordable as the network expands.

Jason - I'm imagining...I'm imagining!  Thanks for commenting.

Libby - I think advances in technology can frustrate us at first...until we learn to adapt our thinking and mode of operation...then we want it more, and faster!

Nancy - we do pay for the internet:  do you pay a monthly access fee to your ISP?  Have you bought anything online?  I understand where you're coming from, though.

Keenan - thank you for commenting

Denise - you can handle more than you give yourself credit for.  Thank you for your comment.

David - Thank you for stopping by and adding to the discussion.  Transmission and reception rates will be far from optimal when applied as a commercial entity, but it certainly will be another level entirely of data access and sharing.  I look at it as a quantum leap, kind of like going from walking to the library 10 miles away to today's cable internet...overnight.

Mike - I certainly hope you are dressed now.  You're giving me the willies!  LOL  Thanks for stopping by to comment.

Thanks, but I can't handle this!  LOL!

Aww, c'mon Jim - you'll take to it like a duck to water...don't sandbag on us now!  LOL

After reading the summary you posted I chuckled to myself. Fiber-optic ran networking is already here. Yes limited but its out there, check out Verizon FIOS pretty amazing stuff. I believe that in the coming century as Nanotechnology integrates itself into every material we use, current inconveniences will cease to exist. Honestly.. not to go to Sci-fi but networks such as ones in the film the Matrix or  Tom Clancy's Net Force will come to be common place. A japanese nano-firm has already been able to create wormholes using nanotechnology to bend light around 3D surfaces... creating freestanding images something of the sort from Starwars.

Another cool innovation from this technology is the ability to cluster all the leftover processing power from individual computers into the grid. The toughest part of this design is "the last mile", or basically the homes connection to the grid. This will require an infrastructure upgrade across the county and the world. It will be our aging infrastructure that will hold back progress. In the United States we have now fallen to 25^th in worldwide broadband penetration (http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0704/). This doesn't fare well for our technological growth and overall education.

Kent, you can be absolutely certain of one thing:  Things change.  Sure the internet will change.  In five years, I expect DOUBLE the number of websites and blogs.  Not only that, but technology like you mentioned will bring us opportunities that we'll all have to adapt to.  Good post.

Jarret - Thanks for commenting.  Nanotechnology is going to open up worlds we never even knew existed.  There are plenty of incredible advances in the lab or in limited application-due to R&D costs and cost of implementation and materials, they will remain limited until the cost factors come down.  Take photovoltaic cells for an example.  Until the cost of installation per kilowatt generated comes down, the individuals in the mass market aren't able to afford to set up a home with a system.  Fiber optic has been around a long time, and FIOS is pretty amazing, but the way in which CERN is networking goes beyond the fiber-optic system itself.  See Geoff's comment just after yours.

Geoff - It is time to for our nation to go on an infrastructure revolution, just to catch up--it is similar in need to what spurred the Interstate system during the Eisenhower administration.  Enormously expensive, but incredible return.  Can you imagine what our country would be like without interstates today?  Thanks for your input!

Chris - I am certain of change--you got that right on the money.  Those who adapt and implement these changes in the life and business strategies will move forward.  It is Darwinian, but so is everything else!  Thank you for stopping by.