I don't think the future will be what anyone expects, but I do think it'll be equally fantastic. Will we build Hyperloops with 3D printers powered by thorium fusion? Probably not. But we'll improve manufacturing, mass transit, and energy sources in ways we can't yet imagine. I grew up reading my father's Heinlein novels. Most of his books were written before the advent of electronic computers. His heroes fly around the universe, dramatically whipping out their slide-rules. It's 2014 and we haven't achieved interplanetary colonisation yet, much less interstellar travel. But we have electronic computers Heinlein couldn't have dreamed of. Will our predictions be wrong? Yes. But it's still fun to hypothesise. And regardless, I think the future will be just as bright, only different. Sorry, I'll get off your lawn now.