Forty years later, there are approximately 200 million, and they are, of course, vastly more powerful and far less expensive. This should now expand much more quickly as a result of the rapid and wide exposure information technology achieved through the run-up to the Y2K event.
There has been a great deal of concern in our society over the past several years about an emerging “digital divide” between the more and the less advantaged elements of our society. Computer literacy, some fear, will further widen the already broad gulf between the earning power of rich and poor.