Ubiquitous computing, or ubicomp, is the term given to the third ear of modern computing.
He does not say 'ubiquitous computing is an amazing technology' or 'ubiquitous computing is a heated research area'. Instead, he put ubicomp in the timeline of modern computing, which implies: we are not digging out something for no reason; we are building this era.
I am always amazed at how scientists like Mark Weiser could envision something still not yet accomplished today as early as over 20 years ago. How about us trying to envision what will happen 20 years from now? We might have some guess; but it is another thing to firmly believe in your envision and actually work on it, pushing it to happen. In some sense, we are not envisioning something; we are proposing something and then make it happen so that when the time comes, we can say: 'hey, I predicted that 20 years ago'.
This is another kind of beauty I perceive from HCI research, apart from 'simple yet having an impact'.
