Drawing analogies between IT shops and the rise of the industrial nation

I’ve always enjoyed Pat Helland’s explanations of architectural concepts. He recently put out a new article on MSDN likening the rise in IT technology to the rise of commerce in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. A great read to put things in perspective. My only reservation is his time line shows the ultimate manifestation of commerce as Wal-Mart. I sure hope we are not destined for the technological equivalent of garish stores so jammed full of cheap mediocre crap that you can hardly navigate a cart down the aisle.