ONLY 15 years ago, using computers and making telephone calls could be an ordeal. The processing speed of computers and printers meant you could wait for seconds, even minutes, for screen-fill or print-out. For telephone users, the electromechanical switching delays meant you could wait more than 30 seconds after dialling the last digit before you heard any ring or engaged tone.

How different it is today. Now we get irritated if we do not hear a ringing tone immediately after pressing the last digit on the keypad, or when we have to wait seconds for a PC application to load. The generic problem is having to wait for a period that is too short to do anything else, but long enough to break our concentration. Delays of a fraction of a second disrupt our mental agility and interactive creativity. In contrast, we now have an abundance of bandwidth, storage capacity and processing power, with optical-fibre Power PCs. Moreover, technology promises even higher levels of circuit density and clock speed at insignificant cost. We are thus approaching the realisation of a dream: to access everything, everywhere, anytime, within three clicks of a mouse and have screen-fill and interaction within a second. For us to enjoy natural and effective communication with people and machines, in real or virtual worlds, the need is for sensory delays of less than 100 milliseconds.

Why foster such a dream? There are two principal reasons: first, we live in an accelerating world where we all have to do more in less time and delays limit us; and second, it can be done . . . Trying to interact with anything, or anyone, at less than natural human speed is counter-productive and irritating. This is obvious when you try to access information on the Internet and end up on the information super cart track. Here, delay is endemic due to inappropriate protocols and layers of unnecessary and inefficient software. Even sending e-mail seems to require a Power PC to get delays down to a few seconds. The reality is that many applications waste increasing megabytes of Ram making the front end prettier, and providing unnecessary facilities, rather than making the process more efficient.

Deregulated telecoms markets may soon see the concatenation of digital mobile telephones (with an internal codec delay in excess of 120ms), with statistical multiplexers, ATM switches, satellite and cable links of numerous unco-ordinated suppliers adding undefined transmission delays. All this will take us further away from the dream of matching man and machine to achieve high-quality communication and creativity. But perhaps most dangerous is the prospect of economic routings chosen in ignorance of the application. E-mail is never a problem, but speech with a total coding and transmission delay of more than 0.5 seconds would be a disaster.

Watch children interacting with machines and it is clear that they have an insatiable desire for instant gratification - the shortest response time and the best graphics. Looking at professionals, you see the same - a desire to be able to do more, faster. All the technology required is available today; we have only to adopt the right mindset and implement the solutions. In the meantime, I suspect our progress will continue to be frustrated by the delays of systems, computers and software configured for the past.

Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is:
http://cochrane.org.uk