According to Hans Moravec, founder of Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, robot intelligence is developing along a path analogous to that of biological intelligence, but at an average rate 10 million times faster. Today, the most advanced machine has the intelligence of a guppy. By 2040, that intelligence could reasonably rise to that of a monkey, or even a human. Moravec foresees what he calls "Mass Utility Robots" this decade and "Full Autonomy" this century.

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The consumer electronics industry is a $113.5 billion behemoth constantly launching dazzling new products like DVD players, MP3 players, and high-definition TVs into an apparently insatiable marketplace. However, one long-time dream has remained beyond the industry's reach so far: the vision of a mass-market media server enabling consumers to connect all of the entertainment devices in the home seamlessly. Now, that vision is rapidly moving closer to reality. What are the implications, and who stands to win? We'll explain.

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With the new Global Opacity Index, executives and investors can quantitatively evaluate the risks of doing business in dozens of countries around the world. For example, is a 12 percent return on investment in China really better than a 6 percent ROI in Finland? We'll explain how you can use this tool to make better investment decisions.

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While American kids may think they are really great, their relative performance as measured against objective global standards is abysmal. In the new global marketplace for talent, that's just not good enough. To the surprise of many, there is no solid evidence linking enhanced self-esteem to higher academic achievement. More than 10,000 studies have tried to prove this relationship, but they have failed. Worse yet, there may actually be a negative correlation. That's why U.S. policy makers are starting to rethink the 30-year trend toward enhancing students' self-esteem rather than making sure they master academics as well as students in other leading countries. We'll discuss the current problem, the emerging trends, and look at some promising solutions we expect to see implemented in the coming decade.

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At the same time stem cells are promising unprecedented hope for heart attack victims, another new technology called "RNA interference" has started to take off. It promises to address the one-third of human maladies that are genetically determined. For example, it can literally turn off the genes that give us cancer, Parkinson's disease, and other ailments. The potential benefits and revenues are enormous. That's why scientists and pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to bring it to fruition. We'll explain how RNA interference is going to change the nature of both disease and medicine worldwide.

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We've made a lot of progress in preventing heart attacks over the past 50 years but, until now, there has been no way to undo the damage a heart attack leaves behind in survivors. Fortunately that's all changing. Dramatic breakthroughs in stem cell research and therapies involving their use in repairing damaged hearts have led to clinical trials across the globe. We expect this to be the first blockbuster treatment using adult stem cells. And we expect it to emerge sooner than most experts dreamed. Once established in treating cardiac patients, stem cell therapy will go on to revolutionize the practice of medicine and its underlying economics. We'll explain what we can expect to see over the next few years and the likely implications for health care companies and physicians, as well as patients and investors.

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In the old days, hardware was hardware, and software was software, and not even IBM tried to do them both when it invented the PC. But a new era of so-called "reprogrammable hardware" is upon us, and it's going to change the way we use computers and every other chip-based device. It will also change the dominant industry business model in dramatic ways.

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