Terry , I do not know what will happen in 10 or 20 years ( whether photonics will take over electrons ... ) but in the next few years semiconductors will do well . I work as a principal engineer for a semiconductor device company . In order to make semiconductor devices , raw materials need to be acquired and processed on . Our raw material suppliers said they have so much orders that they cannot keep up with the demand . I just thought that you might be interested in this information .