Very insightful article. With SETI and Folding at home, we have been using distributed computing for a very long time. With the Quad core mobile phones and other devices the idea is to squeeze more horsepower into our hands. However when designing embedded systems it is often best practice to provide the barest of specifications to meet the needs of the task. This is usually a cost cutting measure. Often these devices are task built, and unable to do anything else.

Do you forsee a future where embedded device standards are uniform enough for for us to be able to donate our spare clock cycles?

It seems to me that costs and personal greed will win out. However, you can have all my spare clock cycles, I'm all in for a better tomorrow.