I agree, save for some breakthrough technologies that will be completely different, like truly immersive VR, robot helpers, good AI, space travel (where the average person is currently experiencing roughly 0%) I think most of the fundamentals are very well covered in the year 2015 - over 90% of where we'd want these things to be, definitely.
I'm inclined to think that now we need to focus more on time, and our enjoyment of it. At the risk of sounding like an incorrect and broken John Maynard Keynes record, the next golden age of humanity, and our goal, frankly, should be a future of plenty where we drive down the cost of these fundamentals to the point where we have to work a lot less, or even not at all, to enjoy them as a practically free baseline.
There will always be new toys to 'work' for and the economy (a version of it) will always keep spinning for those interested in such things, but a future where good food, shelter, travel, entertainment are free as a base to the average person is an utter paradise by today's standards - we're not even remotely close to that - it's attainable only some of the time, and then only in theory, only by significantly-above-average earners in the richest countries (by which I mean taking significant periods of time out from work, and having enough saved that these things are all still attainable).
I'm very jealous of a future where we all achieve that, to be honest. I hope we do.
I'm inclined to think that now we need to focus more on time, and our enjoyment of it. At the risk of sounding like an incorrect and broken John Maynard Keynes record, the next golden age of humanity, and our goal, frankly, should be a future of plenty where we drive down the cost of these fundamentals to the point where we have to work a lot less, or even not at all, to enjoy them as a practically free baseline.
There will always be new toys to 'work' for and the economy (a version of it) will always keep spinning for those interested in such things, but a future where good food, shelter, travel, entertainment are free as a base to the average person is an utter paradise by today's standards - we're not even remotely close to that - it's attainable only some of the time, and then only in theory, only by significantly-above-average earners in the richest countries (by which I mean taking significant periods of time out from work, and having enough saved that these things are all still attainable).
I'm very jealous of a future where we all achieve that, to be honest. I hope we do.