What are some truly great, long-lasting products still in use? I came up with three. The next step was trying to come up with their equivalents in smarter technology. Hang in there with me, this is not as crazy as it seems.

1. Bicycles. The modern, two-wheeled safety bicycle (both wheels of equal size connected by chain drive) was developed in the 1880s. If you saw one of those early bikes today, you would know how to jump on and ride. While there have been tremendous technology improvements in materials and manufacture, the bicycle design remains enduring and—especially these days—the greenest way to get around.

So what is the high-tech equal? Something that just works, continues to improve through a worldwide, loosely organized developer community and will endure? I'm thinking all those Linux-based desktop, server and mobile operating systems. While any one of the companies producing those systems could disappear, another will form to take its place. Is Linux the new bicycle? Looks that way.

2. Books. Books are the key to passing along knowledge. Portable, private and able to cause a revolution by their contents, it is hard to come up with something that has had a more profound effect on civilization than books.

The high-tech equal? While Amazon's Kindle is innovative, you don't get the durability, the ability to easily pass along the contents or much of an assurance that if someone picks up a Kindle 100 years from now they will have any hope at reading the contents. Maybe the next generation of the World Wide Web will finally find the balance between ubiquity and privacy, real time and archival, and contents that are understandable by any user regardless of language.

3. The French coffee press. I'm a coffee fan. I've tried lots of coffee makers that turn on by themselves, drip at specific rates and so forth. You can't match the French press for something that is designed to serve only one purpose, can be mastered in a few moments without instruction and does the best job around.

What is the tech equal? I've been keeping an eye on the mission-specific robotics industry. You have robots designed for vacuum cleaning, gutter leaf cleaning and—yes—bomb disposal. Maybe you'll have a garage full of job-specific robots designed to do one job really well.