Ross Mayfield has a quote from Ray Kurzweil:

"The relative wealth that we now have comes from productivity, and we're going to see dramatic productivity enhancements in the future. If you jump ahead 20 years or so, we will be able to create virtually any physical product at almost no cost, just from information and fabrication techniques. In fact, we're not that far today from being able to create physical products with software because we have computer-assisted inventory control systems, just-in-time procurement, computer-controlled movement of materials and assembly"

Wow that's what I call a forward looking statement!