Cultural changes will be wrought by some of this technology. A cascade of developments could easily be triggered by such seemingly innocent toys like that. For one thing, politicians will stand a great chance of being "outed" in many of their nefarious dealings if there isn't a good deal of regulation. Right now any disgruntled participant in a meeting, any unhappy lover, could post a video of the transaction. That's not going to be allowed to be common practice.

For one thing, there is simply too much which could be taxed and isn't for governments to pass it up. Second, the chances for abuse with the technology which will be available in 20 years is too great. Third, the sheer volume of use will require enormous pipelines as more and more phones and videos go flying through the cyberspace.

I can imagine that the internet will become something like the highway system now. One would have to be licensed to use it, every post could easily be traced to it's true origin and rights to avail oneself of the system could be revoked.

I think these days will be remembered as something like the Wild West, where to go anywhere one just had to buy a horse and take off. Romantic, and dead. Someone is going to figure out the equivalent of barbed wire, access limited as more and more sections will be split off and sold by the government into private ownership. That process will be dearly loved by the Libertarians.

The internet has taken the place of the free press in informing people. When it's regulated and sold, the corporate tails will be wagging the political dogs.

Arf