This is the first of two articles by David Rotman on technology and the federal stimulus package. The second, "Chasing the Sun," appeared in the July/August 2009 issue and examined the impact of spending billions of dollars on renewable energy will have on the future of solar power.

By any measure, $100 billion is a staggering amount of money. That's how much the federal stimulus bill devotes to the discovery, development, and implementation of various technologies. Some $20 billion will fund the increased use of electronic medical records; another $7.2 billion will support the extension of broadband Internet access to areas currently without such services. Most impressive, roughly $60 billion will be spent on energy, funding everything from energy-efficiency programs to loan guarantees for the construction of large facilities that use new biofuel and solar technologies.