When I was in grade school, I sometimes amused (or terrified!) myself by calculating how old I would be in the year 2000. Fifty three years old. Gee, that's OLD.

Well the day came and went, and before I knew it here we are well into a new century, a new millennium. I know these even-number boundaries are strictly arbitrary, but still, it always seemed like each century had its characteristic "feel" to it, and that there would be a period of transition between centuries; you know, the 19th century was about horses and telegraphs, the 20th about cars and telephones.

I can remember when television was something you read about in magazines (my Uncle Frank was the only person I knew who had one). He was a radio ham and hip to all things electric.

But the 21st is all about spacecraft and computers. And the transition period is over. A hundred years ago women were about to get to vote, hemlines were rising, and aircraft were a novelty--but an accepted and familiar one.

Yeah, there are no flying cars, or commercial space travel, or walking, talking robot butlers, but we are now deep into a new century. A sci-fi century. And just like in the last century, we can't even begin to imagine what the next one will be like.