The Atlantic is celebrating its 150th anniversary in fine style with a provocative series of short essays on the topic. Ray Kurzweil, an astonishingly prolific inventor, contributed an essay that recaps ideas he's been promoting for some years, but his words struck me with new meaning.

"...information tools are more than doubling their power in terms of prior performance and capacity every year, which means multiplying by a thousand in less than a decade, by a billion in 25 years. Every decade... we are also shrinking the size of these technologies by a factor of about 100... so you'll be able to email a blouse or a computer... The biotechnology revolutiton is also doubling its power each year. Life expectancy was only about 40 years in 1857 when The Atlantic Monthly was founded. It was 47 in 1900. It is now pushing 80, but his increase will go into high gear in about a decade."

Re-read his words. Then think about what this means for you and your community.

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