Where did the year 2001 disappear to? I've often checked out predictions by futurologists wondering how much prospicience they really had. Checking back over predictions of the future made in the past by such luminaries as Arthur C Clarke and Robert A Heinlein is interesting to me in that (whatever Clarke may claim, yes old man, and Jules Verne predicted the 1968 Moon Landing) they were completely wrong with regards to anything of consequence. Of course it's easier to predict what won't happen than what will! So here's my future timeline, inaugurated in May of 2002 (but who knows, not me, when I'll feel the need for the next one) to embarrass myself in the future.
"Fortunately, real life is too chaotic to predict via linear extrapolation. If Nero had tried to predict history with linear extrapolation, his picture of 2003 would have included: Imperial legions from the only world superpower carrying eagle emblems, marching into wars against minor nations in the Middle East, in order to build up the political careers of the powerful and unscrupulous. He would have predicted the Middle Easterners forming terrorist groups to retaliate in protest against the Imperial images and unveiled women defiling the Holy Lands. Nero could never have foreseen the modern world, with our ocean farms, Mars terraforming, and asteroid cities."
-- Bill Walker
If I say "not in my lifetime," I mean by 2050 (being very optimistic about how long I'll live!).
I've split down into what I think should be self-explanatory categories: