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However true 128-bit encryption would still take millions of years. 40-bit was still in a range where it could be brute forced (started out as 100 computers in 8 days and shrunk from there). 128-bit hasn't reached a point where brute forcing it is conceivable (unless possibly you're the NSA or some group like that and even still...

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When you think about networked computers and the internet, the potential number of computers available for a brute force attack can become reasonable. The SETI screen saver program had hundreds of thousands of users at its peak. This program used your idle time when the screen saver was running to analyze background radio noise to search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

Google has a tool bar button now that allows you to participate in pretty much whatever someone wants to pay them for in the same way. If you break a big problem into small enough parts, you can farm it out to lots of "crackers" to solve in a short elapsed time.

You still can't get 9 women together and have a baby in one month though. Some single-threaded things do just take time.