...you could "rent" your computer from one source, memory from someone else, a program here, a program there, and so on...

"The network is the computer..."

Who used that slogan for a while, was it Sun? A number of companies flirted with this idea for a while, then it seemed to fall out of favor...at least for the time being. Maybe it was ahead of its time. I found the idea of having my information stored "elsewhere," and my software rented on a per-use basis (again from that nebulous elsewhere) somewhat disconcerting. A little ironic, I suppose, in that I write web applications that I expect other people to unquestioningly trust.

But imagine network computing coupled with the promise of web services. When you need computing services (software rental, storage, processing services, etc), your computer will not search out potential solution providers for you, but also find the best price/service combination and actually finalize the deal itself...all behind the scenes, based on rules you've set down for it.

Web services are primarily being pushed (with only marginal success) for business-2-business purposes right now, but if it ever makes headway in that arena, I could see it eventually used at the consumer level. Maybe. Possibly.