For a long time, I've been interested in what famous inventor/futurist Ray Kurzweil has to say about things. For those just joining the party, Kurzweil is known for two things: inventing nifty gadgets and systems that help people and making seemingly wacky and extremely optimistic predictions about the not-too-distant future. Here he spells out a lot about the later in a TED talk. It's long and somewhat involved, but it's a good watch.  Frankly, I have my doubts about a lot of it.  After all, it is predicated on the belief that humans/human culture will actually survive to realize these predictions and I have to put that proposition at even odds: