The future is insanely hard to predict. For instance, when DARPA first created what would later be called "the internet," all they were trying to do was build a communication infrastructure that could reliably deliver porn after World War III. Had they known that a) World War III was only going to happen in 80s nuclear war movies and b) the internet would eventually bring about a disastrous television writers' strike, they might have dumped the money into some other crazy 60s idea. Weather control, maybe.

They couldn't have guessed where their research would lead, however, so here we are in 2007 with a vast interconnected network that exists pretty much so that people can argue as to the exact point The Simpsons stopped being good. As the internet evolves, though, it's beginning to realize its potential as a content delivery system.