A somewhat harried looking man emerged. He was one of those people who seemed ageless; he looked like he could be anywhere from his late thirties to his early fifties. He had silvering hair and some lines to his face but not many, and his blue-gray eyes seemed to exude both youthful energy and wisdom. A file folder was open in his hands.

Osmund Snow spent a moment intently reading the description of the person he was there to retrieve. A young woman of thirty years, average height. The athletic build made sense given she had been an officer. Blonde hair and green eyes completed the list of things he needed to search out. He closed the file and looked at those waiting then spotted her standing by theand that brand name had disappeared. In 2001, flat-panel displays and digital video processing were in the Deceptive phase of growth. In this phase, the technology is desirable in a few early applications and has a profound potential for exponential growth. However, we call it “deceptive” because of its immaturity in key areas, such as cost, availability, reliability, and ease of use, camouflage its potential. Even the most clairvoyant among us are often unable to detect the power of technologies in the deceptive phase. The average automobile of 1900, more expensive, less reliable, and slower than a horse, was a notable example. The internet of 1985 with its limited access points and the requirement of knowing a 12-digit address to access a file on another computer, was truly