I propose that, in the near future, as funding and demand for public libraries partially dries up, due to competition from the internet, we introduce an equivalent concept of "public computer cluster".
The idea is that, much as libraries give everyone, even those without homes, bank accounts, credit, etc, access to books and a place to read them, municipalities of the future could fund open public computer clusters, where anyone can just walk in, and grab a terminal with a web browser.
Of course, I got this idea by actually looking at libraries, which are beginning to offer this in addition to "books and a place to read them", but I didn't really grasp how important this service would be until today. Personally, I still like having a public "books and a place to read them" building, but I could imagine public buildings solely devoted to public computer access, something like the computer labs from college, with a hybrid librarian/helpdesk/sysadmin managing it.
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