Bill Gates (yeah, yeah, I know..) says the internet will revolutionize TV

Actually it already has. The number of folks skipping the tube for YouTube or D/L-ing to the 'ole iPod is becoming a strong movement. We are becoming a nation of people who refuse to wait on the network to see what we want.
Tivo, DVD recorders, Tuner cards in PCs, all of these are striking at the heart of the old style networks.

Instead of 100 channels of crap, we will Google an infinity of material from all over the world.

I believe that the rise of routine communications among average citizens on both sides of the pond had more than a little to do with the 'fall' of the USSR. As long as you didn't know Ivan's voice, or that his little girl was starting school or any of the millions of concerns of parents, children, husbands and wives going about their daily routines, it was easy to hate Ivan. When you began to know him, and he learned that we (at that time presided over by sane, intelligent leaders) didn't really want to invade, pillage and burn. (Now, of course, all bets are off!)

I would hope that that same 'sharing of intelligence' with all manner of people all over the world , may help those in this country finally learn that what everyone wants is to go about his own affairs, undisturbed by bullies half a world away. We all want just to get along.