The Grid - Faster than a Speeding Internet

Found this article about "the Grid," the next generation of the Internet.

The Internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

It's great that technology marches on but I find it amazing that the article gives three examples of the speed of The Grid in the first three paragraphs and they are all about entertainment. Not that research will be enhanced. Not that business will improve or that support will be more readily available. They do slip in a sliver of a plug for enhanced communications in the last sentence but that's it. The only thing that matters is that we can get our music quicker, our videos of people doing ridiculous things quicker, and our online gaming more powerful.

Perhaps they should have called it "The Matrix."