What, pray tell, is the BRIC currency? Thus, it can't replace the dollar.

Brazil: don't know enough about.

Russia: a failing kleptocracy.

India: mired in poverty, corruption and incompetence that is inconceivable in the West.

China: going to implode in about 20 years because of it's aging crisis. Hell, it might implode in 10 years because Chinese are becoming more prosperous -- and thus demanding higher wages and better safety and environmental regulation, which jack up costs -- while low wage manufacturing moving to Vietnam.

No it won't. To many people want something for nothing.

You're right. It's "only" 4374784 / 224792 = 19.46x more flexible. Although the network effect might make it 19.46x(19.46-1) = 359.23x more flexible.

Sooo... automated trucks.

It' already been well established for decades that it's stunningly cheaper to move a ton of cargo by rail compared to truck.

That pesky flexibility thing, though, keeps commercial trucking in business.

And then which economically powerful countries will hold greatest sway?

I'm pretty sure they did that 100 years ago. Most trains I see nowadays -- if they aren't pulling tank cars -- pull container cars: lifted off of the ship onto the train and then off the train onto a trailer. Note the progression from huge to large to small.

Still, roads are 1000x more flexible than rails, and if you can't see that, you need to clean your glasses.

Who has a 1TB repository? Even 200GB is 15 shades of ginormous.

How so? (The tracks still don't run everywhere that roads do.)

The VAX uses the 32-bit MACRO-32 assembler.

Then why is AMD losing money hand over fist while Intel is raking in the cash?

With US$18Bn in cash and other marketable securities, sales of US$53.3Bn and net income of $11.0Bn, I'll take Intel's problems any day.

1) roads go where the people are, train tracks don't;
2) a truck can be either big or small, and can leave whenever you want.

Trains are great for carrying bulk goods on fixed schedules, but there's much more to society than that.

Huh?