PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OPM 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 FR1;Introduction We are entering an era when the already considerable appeal of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries will grow exponentially. This new age is symbolized by the microchip, which is extending the reach of the human brain the way machines extended the reach of human muscle during the industrial revolution. We will be reminded as never before that the source of all wealth and progress is the human brain, not material things. This has always been true, but the microchip will make it so plain that even the most obtuse will have to acknowledge it. In ages past, wealth was thought to lay in material things: armies, gold, jewels, land, and, until a little over a century ago, slaves. You can't touch and feel software the way you can a slab of steel or a bar of silver. Yet in the hands of daring entrepreneurs these pieces of plastic can create riches beyond the imaginings of even the greediest Croesus. They enabled a poor southerner, Sam Walton, to storm and humble the seemingly impregnable corporate fortresses of Sears, K Mart, and others. The secret of Wal-Mart's success was using sophisticated inventory software that enabled it to respond immediately to marketplace changes and to simplify magnificently the layers of middlemen between stores and suppliers. vi Introduction The information age will change our lives as dramatically as did the machine age. This era is emasculating centralized bureaucracies, giving unprecedented powers to countless millions of individuals. It will also make possible a cultural renaissance. The coarsening of American life over the past half-century will begin to be reversed. With highdefinition, interactive television on countless thousands of channels, we will be able to nurture interests--music, books, collecting, movies, golfing, carpentry, etc.--in a way that is utterly impossible with today's boob tube, where viewers are reduced to couch potatoes watching channels that can achieve profit-sized audiences only by appealing to the lowest common denominator.