Musings on the Bleeding Edge

Technology is funny.  When used for its intended purpose, it is a tool; a tool which can be used for as long as the pieces last without major issues.  Technology, however, generally has a way of making us less patient.  If I give you a tool which reduces the time it takes to do something by 50%, eventually you will say: "It is great that I can do this task so much easier now, but it would be nice if I could do it even faster."  Thus we introduce obsolescence.  There are entire professions of people devoted to making things faster.  This profession is called engineers.  In fact, some engineers are so good at what they do, that they make tools whose only job is to help them make faster tools.  What used to take hours, or days can now be done in milliseconds.  News of natural disasters can now travel faster than the disaster's impact.  A letter which used to take weeks to travel overseas can now get there in mere moments.  In the midst of all this, we are no longer satisfied with the extraordinary advances we have made.  Instead, we want things even faster, better, and easier than before.  In addition to all this, our technology's obsolescence is now influenced by the gadgets and gizmos we see our friends using.  Somehow, our cell phone which was so cool 2 weeks ago, is now woefully slow and out of date, merely by seeing our neighbor's smartphone.  Our laptop, which we purchased several months back, now pales in comparison.  At what point will our need for better and faster technology stop?  What is the logical extent of computing?
Thoughts?