ABSTRACT
Will there be a breakthrough in the field of information retrieval? One authority in that field has said, “No.” This paper adopts the opposite viewpoint, and speculates on what the elements of such a breakthrough might be if it were to occur.
Several breakthroughs in other fields are scrutinized in order to highlight the factors which characterize and energize sudden expansion of new technologies. These factors, plus some factors specific to the field of information retrieval, are then extrapolated into a “plot for a breakthrough.”
