This is partly driven by "we need device drivers and no one understands C anymore", partly because it's cool, but mostly because Moores law is still alive and well. They are putting a scripting language in a kernel ! Forget write your app in python / perl / Ruby then optimise in C - the raw power argument is going to overwhelm us all.
I heard a stat the other day - that a greetings card, the kind that plays a silly tune, has more processing power than all computers on the planet in 1960. And we should expect a similar growth in the next 50 years. Even if that's out by two orders of magnitude just let it sink in.
I think we are at a Cambrian explosion period - where the goal is to try out every possible new body shape, as fast as possible and see which ones get the Darwin seal of approval.
New organisation forms are possible, some for the first time in human history, new ways of thinking and communicating - it's stuff like this that makes one realise the water around the frog is getting hotter.
(Still it's worth remembering that most train companies in 19C England failed and the average return for stockholders was 10% - just because the world will change beyond recognition does not mean industry stocks is a great return)