The Soft Futurology of Lowered Expectations...

Edited and upgraded from the Moot...

Don't you just love it when futurologists who have been handwaving about robo-digi-nano-bio techno-transcendence just around the corner every hour on the hour for a generation turn around after endless prophetic failure and say, well, you know, actually, when you really come to think about it, well, we've actually had cognitive enhancement for as long as we've had education, we've actually had virtual reality for as long as we've had literature, we've actually had nanotechnology for as long as we've had biochemistry, we've actually had enhancement and longevity medicine for as long as we've had effective healthcare, we've actually had the singularity for as long as we've had an uncertain future, we've actually been cyborgs since we've had eyeglasses, clothes, used language, whatever... as if this retreat into the quotidian represents some sort of vindication of futurology, some sort of indication of their special relevance and expertise... and it doesn't seem to occur to any of them that nobody ever needed a futurologist of all people -- or pseudo-scientific futurological promotional neologisms of all things -- to point out that chemistry and literature and prostheses and so on exist or are, you know, worthy of discussion?