.11.2 GPS Guidance / 211 9.11.3 Speech-Controlled Arm / 212 Glossary Index List of Figures Figure Intro. 1: The Bell System Pavilion, AT&T's showplace at the New York World's Fair in 1964. Figure 2-1 Lightweight, wireless computer. Figure 2-2 Tom-Clancy based computer game. Figure 2-3 First wireless communication system built on a computer chip. Figure 2-4 Streamlined nanoguitar. Figure 3-1 Mini Talker. Figure 3-2 Sensors use the strength and direction of radio signals from their neighbors to map their locations. Figure 4-1 REAL Glass (Rare Earth Aluminum oxide). Figure 4-2 Light-emitting transistor. Figure 6-1 Stratospheric satellites. Figure 8-1 Tiny, quiet fan that will help cool future laptop computers, mobile phones and other portable electronic gear. Introduction I started exploring telecommunications' frontiers at the tender age of nine, way back in 1964. That was the year I visited the New York World's Fair and found myself, quite unexpectedly, drafted into a corporate public relations demonstration. Back then, nearly all U.S. telecommunications-hardware, software and service-was concentrated in the hands of a giant monopoly-the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. AT&T's showplace at the fair was the Bell System Pavilion. (Fig. Intro.-1). The Bell System, for those too young to remember, was AT&T's conglomeration of regional telephone operating com- panies. A federal court order, issued 20 years after the fair closed, forced AT&T to divest itself of the firms. Like an ancient cathedral, the pavilion was designed to be simultaneously functional and awe inspiring. (No surprise, since in the 1960s AT&T had nearly as much raw political power as the medieval church.) Situated on 2.5 acres of prime, reclaimed Queens swampland, the pavilion's upper section was a massive "floating wing," measuring 400 feet long, 200 feet wide, and 87 feet high. Held aloft by a set of four 24-foot-tall pylons, the gleaming white struc- ture (marred only by traditional blue Bell System logos on each side) looked as though it were 