The idea is to imagine the future, specifically as relates to technology and how people use it, create plausible scenarios that might actually come about as technology develops, and then figure out how to make them happen.

FORBES: Prototyping The Distant Future

Perhaps as technology develops, diverges and becomes more ubiquitous, we'll be taking sides the same way we do sports teams: for personal reasons backed by hard facts and a spiffy T-shirt.

ENGADGET: This is the Modem World: Why we fight

So the contractors may benefit from the project and then, as well, for the technology it develops.

FORBES: Patent Implications: The New Tappan Zee Bridge And The Boeing Dreamliner

Advances in computer know-how -- the ability to "reverse engineer" almost any product -- mean that as soon as a luxury product develops a cachet there will be a band of forgers with the technology and resources to copy it.

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