In this democratic, high-tech era, however, a shift to a more decentralized system is essential.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

In this high-tech era when money moves at the speed of light, it makes less and less sense for banks to sit on a customer's deposit for days, collecting interest on the "float" while the depositor waits to draw on his deposit.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

Even in this high-tech era of amazing medical tools--MRI scanners that can see deep inside the body, gamma-ray beams harnessed to zap tumors, implantable defibrillators that shock the heart to keep it pumping--surgeons still wield an old-fashioned blade to take life into their hands.

FORBES: Robo-docs

It also underscores a little-remembered fact: Even in an era of high-tech drones, the Air Force still relies on manned spy planes such as modern versions of the U-2, five decades after the famous exchange.

WSJ: Cold War U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers to Receive Silver Star

In an era when high-flying tech companies outdo each other with worker perks, no-frills Bezos is proving the potency of another model: coddling his 164 million customers, not his 56, 000 employees.

FORBES: Inside Amazon's Idea Machine: How Bezos Decodes The Customer

General Motors this evening took the wraps off the seventh generation Chevrolet Corvette, a 450-horsepower high-tech American sports car that says as much about GM in the post-bankruptcy era as any financial spreadsheet or marketing campaign.

FORBES: New Corvette Is A Sign Of The Times At GM

We've already entered a new energy era that is dramatically more competitive, diverse and high-tech than the past.

WSJ: Nansen G. Saleri: Our Man-Made Energy Crisis