But in the very near-term future we're likely to see this begin to change. It is about to get immensely easier to get a computer – including your smartphone – to behave exactly the way you want it to, and to remember exactly how you like things to be arranged or done. I'm talking orders of magnitude simpler.

Natural-language programming isn’t quite available yet, although Stephen Wolfram’s just-announced Wolfram language is certainly very promising. Even before natural language programming, however, within the next year or so we should begin to see some app developers releasing meta-apps -- smartphone apps that connect easily with other smartphone apps, Web sites, and physical sensors, in order to coordinate their actions and provide a more convenient, customized experience for consumers. (EasilyDo is one example of an app that is approaching this capability, for instance, but I'm sure I'm overlooking many more, similar apps).

Doesn't it feel like the nonhumans have taken over the Internet?