Cyber age's impact on information.

• Position: Computers - Brief Article

A parallel universe is rapidly being created online, as experts differ on what we should expect from a fully networked world. "The onrushing Cyber Age has given newfound power to us all," author Carter Henderson told the World Future Society, Bethesda, Md., detailing how business practices, entertainment, and many other aspects of our lives have been upended by the torrent of information now available. As the Cyber Age gains momentum, we are hurdling toward even greater changes. Hero's a sampling of what experts predict:

* Networked microprocessors will expand computer power at an exponential rate. The emerging information grid will have a greater impact on our daily lives than the electric power grid does today, according to Larry Smarr, head of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology.

* By 2018, major newspapers will "publish their last paper editions and move solely to electronic distribution," maintains Microsoft's Bill Gates. By 2020, dictionaries will redefine books as "eBook titles read on screen."

* Information will become universally...