前两篇提及的信息技术果然实现的话，我们在科幻电影里头看到的终结者式的视角和高级人工智能也就即将成为现实了；钢铁人里面辅助那位工程师进行魔幻般科学研究的智能电脑也离我们不远。至少，下面这个来自微软的未来故事已经近在眼前：

A few years from now, when you drive into a McDonald's parking lot, your dashboard computer will start beeping.

The computer is synced to your phone, and both devices have geographic location services. They know where you are and, based on your credit-card activity, they guess you're about to order another burger and supersized fries.

But because you've subscribed to Microsoft Personal Trainer 2015, a premium feature of the online health-management system you've been using since 2012, technology intervenes. The services are gathering information on your behalf, using a new software platform that began taking shape in 2008.

When your car stops moving, the phone projects your image on the windshield, similar to the way R2D2 played the holographic image of Princess Leia in "Star Wars."

On the windshield, you're looking chubbier than you do in the rear-view mirror, because the image shows what you'll look like if you keep eating this way.

Superimposed on the image is your current weight, the cholesterol reading from your last checkup and — highlighted in red — a notation that you haven't used your Web-connected treadmill for over a month.

The image flickers and zooms ahead two years, showing how you'll appear after gaining an extra 30 pounds and being diagnosed with diabetes. With the ka-ching sound of a slot machine, it starts calculating what will happen to your health and life-insurance premiums. Somewhere in the background, it sends an update to your physician.

The image on your windshield is more than virtual. It's reality, based on the medical imagery, health records and genetic profiling accumulated in your online medical-record repository.

All of those images are stitched together using Photosynth technology Microsoft acquired in 2006 when it purchased a Seattle imaging startup. The images and other records are stored and distributed by HealthVault, the health-information platform the company launched in October 2007.

HealthVault plugs into Amalga, the health-care-information platform Microsoft plans to launch this summer after testing by top-tier hospitals across the country.

作为科幻迷，这些即将到来的信息技术魔法让我兴奋不已。更高兴的是，微软从windows+office转向diversity战略已经不可逆转，比如改行去做上述的医疗信息系统。多年来忍受微软windows的折磨也将在可预见的将来结束——信息技术的进步从这个角度说也算符合马克思所谓的“解放全人类的事业”，呵呵。