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Yes, it is very possible that procrastination will allow you to get stuff done faster. Not other stuff, but the thing you are procrastinating about. See The Effects of Moore's Law and Slacking for the details...

Add to this, there's NOTHING HAPPENING on the software front that is requiring new hardware. In 1996-8 the internet pushed a new wave of hardware buying, since 16mb 75mhz Pentium Is weren't up to the task of browsing the web. This killer app led to a new hardware "baby boom" that was predictable to the slashdot crowd. So what's on the horizon now to drive a new wave of hardware upgrades? VRML? Dead. Nasty Virii? Doesn't affect Macs. Anything else?

There's two problems I have with this. If software development drove cpu/computer design then TRS80's Apple I, IMSAI, Osborne, and other microprocessors wouldn't of been built. Sometimes hardware comes first then software. Then who's to say what the next "killer app" will be? Whoever does could very well end up very wealthy. I'd imagine it could be related to Internet 2

It also ignores Moore's Law

We've said recently that as machines get faster, the software gets slower, so the work we have to do doesn't get sped up much (though the expectation for bells and whistles like fancy typesetting go up and up...), so would it really make such a big difference in our lives?

Here's one nifty thing that will break with Moore's Observation: the optimal slack time for large computations. If you're doing large computations, it would suck to see your slack time evaporate!

How about if you could actually improve your overall productivity by slacking? ;-)

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I have recently learnt that IPSEC/IKE does indeed give you PFS, perfect forward secrecy.

Tsk, tsk. Even that only uses a 1024 bit key, so I only need to try 1.8e+308 or so possible keys to find the right one-- not currently practical, but a few years of Moore's law might render the problem solvable within the lifetime of the known universe, even precluding a major breakthrough in quantum computing.

There's a difference between problems that are absurdly difficult, and problems that are outright impossible.

Someone begs to differ:
The Effects of Moore's Law and Slacking on Large Computations

Abstract :
We show that, in the context of Moore's Law, overall productivity can be increased for large enough computations by `slacking' or waiting for some period of time before purchasing a computer and beginning the calculation.

According to Moore's Law, the computational power available at a particular price doubles every 18 months. Therefore it is conceivable that for sufficiently large numerical calculations and fixed budgets, computing power will improve quickly enough that the calculation will finish faster if we wait until the available computing power is sufficiently better and start the calculation then.

I particularly like their unit of measure : "slacktitude"

Damn, that means that I'll eventually have to stop slacking off.

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