Speculations about future directions

Speculations about the future of technology are a hazardous business. Much of the history of long-term technology forecasts has been a history of failures, so I undertake the theme of my title with some trepidation. My only consolation is that I am sufficiently old that it is unlikely that I can be called to account for those of my speculations that will turn out to be wrong. But then, maybe some of them will turn out to be right, and can be cited as having been "foreseen by the late Professor Kroemer. "MBE has been spectacularly successful in the degree of control and design freedom on the "vertical" scale along the growth direction, down to individual atomic monolayer control, but it lacks- like other crystal growth technologies - any significant lateral control, within those beautiful monolayer planes.