And we must see if other models of computing could surpass the tried and true. Nanotechnology and quantum computing could well be fundamental ingredients in the next revolution in computing. Massively parallel computation based on swarms of conventional chips underlies another potential revolution.

Canny: Computers aren't very valuable yet, because the applications they perform are still elementary and routine. It's actually remarkable how much we spend on IT, considering how little it does. The most widespread applications are still e-mail and Microsoft Office. That should tell us something.

What we really need to be thinking about is what people are doing with computers and how we could help them to do those things much better. Since most people are doing knowledge tasks, that means machines understanding their owners' work processes much more deeply, finding semantically appropriate resources with or without being asked, critiquing choices and suggesting better ones, and tracking synergies with other groups within a large organization. Computers will leverage the human resources in the company more at a knowledge level. They will directly tie what they do to the creative processes of employees. The economic impact of that would be much bigger than anything we have seen so far.

Which areas in CS will show the most important and interesting advancements in the next few years?

Chazelle: Definitely algorithms. What are the most amazing technological breakthroughs in recent years? TCP/IP, whole-genome shotgun sequencing, Google, quantum factoring -- all of them algorithms. We're in for huge surprises.