[VLM]

Someone is on the right track, but to emphasize its ubiquitous nature when its too cheap to meter.

Not, "there's my workstation and the giant LCD monitor is no longer a status symbol" but more like "well of course the wall next to my bed is a star trek style all-walls-are-misterhouse interface to everything"

Not, "there's my solar panels which cost more than the roof they're sitting on although they are quite profitable" but more like "well of course every surface exposed to the sun charges a battery or sells electricity to the local power co-op".

Think of the weird stuff that'll happen culturally. Campaigns to save the topsoil because people who want $$$ more than they want grass lawns will kill their lawn by shading it with cells. Endless arguments on HN about if you're better off selling solar power to buy hot pockets or using the sunlight directly to grow lettuce. All battery powered rechargeable devices will charge when sitting in the sun, so you'll have interesting social patterns about not stepping on or running over people's devices. When sunlight equals money you'll have people chopping down their neighbors trees illegally on a regular basis. They'll be a short term "vegas" effect where every surface of the world will have to be covered with gaudy advertisements. People will wear clothes that are computer display fabric and download new patterns more often than they wash, probably. And they'll be viruses that eat your electricity until you pay them off, throw spam on your epaper, and upload nude texture packs to your ecloth clothing (although, who knows, maybe people will intentionally like that?)

I'm old enough to have lived thru long distance voice communication going from "too expensive for regular folks per minute" to too cheap to meter. I can see something coming for at least low power electricity and computer display tech.

[mobilefriendly]

Long distance telephony is a poor analogy-- the high cost in the U.S. was due to regulated market structure (govt policy enforced a monopoly), not the underlying tech. Once the courts opened the door to competition by breaking up Ma Bell and MCI v. ATT , costs collapsed.