So to my area of expertise, software: the intelligent fridge that knows you are running out of milk and orders it from an Internet grocery; high power computation 'on tap' through a 'grid'; autonomous computational agents that move around networks gathering information on your behalf; ubiquitous sensors coupled with smart data mining technology that keep watch on your health; high fidelity immersive virtual learning environments; and so on. I can almost hear the ‘Tomorrow's World’ theme.

What is our everyday experience of software? It is difficult to use, unreliable, fragile and costly. It makes profligate use of the hardware resources we have available. It does not work in conjunction with other software and often interferes with it. The management of a portfolio of software applications is difficult and time consuming. Without significant investment, software applications have a short lifespan before they require replacement. To keep them running requires constant access to expert support which is scarce, and consequently very expensive.

An indirect consequence of this is that there are many areas where we know that software would make our life easier but we cannot afford it. Either because it costs too much money to build or because the small pool of people capable of constructing such software is engaged in propping up the stuff we already have!