I do think the future is bright. I do think we'll barely recognize it. But I also think that there's a lot of concentration on fads because they're easier to think about than incremental change. Henry Petroski argues that necessity isn't the mother of invention - when you need something, you don't sit around coming up with clever ways to get it, you kludge something together and muddle through. By his reckoning (argued over an impressive array of books), Luxury is the mother of invention because it is only when you are idle do you have the time to ponder ways to increase your idle time.

Lazy people musing about laziness. That's the legacy of the human race. Thus, I look on with suspicion whenever I see someone fervently saying "all those that come before me are wrong!"

Change sneaks up on you. I saw a futurist's curve once where he pointed out that early adopters are always wrong because adoption is exponential. My favorite William Gibson quote is "I think most people are most comfortable ten years in the past." It takes a while to get used to things.

My grandfather outlived two hip replacements. That hardly makes him "transhuman." 3D printing is a tool, not a messiah. And when I die, I will rot and moulder away, regardless of how clever the computers have become. So will you. All we can hope is that we live on in the memories of those we care about - it's so much more important than living on in the memories of someone else's silicon.

"“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

- Mark Twain