This bubble, if it exists, must be almost exclusively in the domain of the very wealthy investors who directly invest in new tech companies that are not yet public. But then as a class, these upper class investors would not lose money if these companies go bankrupt because only leveraged money evaporates, the cash investment done by the rich who buys a piece of the company simply goes to the bank account of another person who often happens to be rich. (This is just like a conservation law similar to the continuity equation, if you like fluid mechanics.) This is not the kind of money that middle class investors lose in mutual funds and monetized mortgage obligations that wiped out the middle class during the previous crash.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the tech bubble of 1998-2000 was a great benefit to the overall economy because although most internet companies went bankrupt in 2000-2003, a decade later these technologies started to mature and information is gradually becoming affordable and available to everyone. Within a couple of decades, online universities will begin to compete with traditional colleges and perhaps even graduate schools, a substantial portion of science and engineering is already becoming simulation exercises or thought experiments where the scratchpad is the computer. I have bought nearly a thousand books online, based on the articles and recommendations that I have read online to decide if the book is worth reading, and in many cases the recommendations were accurate and my choice was good. Thus, the tech bubble of 2000 that you mentioned, turned out to be a boon for humanity.
Here is an article that says that despite all my previous complaints about the rising inequality and the top % that are getting more powerful, the fact is that thanks to technological innovation in many parts of the world the inequality is actually becoming a lot less bad and the quality of life is steadily improving (thanks to some higher tax brackets that result in redistribution also):
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablo ... st-poorest
The name HAL is derived from "Heuristically Programmed ALgorithmic Computer." HAL 10000 is the new generation computer destined to become the successor to HAL 9000, as suggested in Arthur C. Clarke's book.