Only time will tell whether the current interest in software systems that embody lifelike qualities will continue apace. Many are the signs that interest will continue to increase, and that system intelligence manifested through synthetic agent emissaries will become, if not commonplace, at least highly accepted in the mainstream. The combination of a new breed of Web-software consumers likely to be interested in non-traditional applications and interfaces, the increase in local computing power allowing for pragmatic approaches to speech recognition and sophisticated real-time expressive graphics, and lastly the emergence of ``killer apps'' for many AI-related technologies suggest that this is an area that will grow signicantly. After all, our own world is infinitely richer, and more engaging, than that of computers. In the end it may well make sense to have programming interfaces join our own complex social fabric now that we have the skills to inspire them with the illusion of life.