Graeme Wood looks at the much larger picture:
Humans have been interested in the future for millennia, mostly as a subject for theologians. But theologians were, along with everyone else, thinking small. Most humans who have ever lived have died in conditions almost exactly like the ones into which they were born, and without written history had no way to grasp that the future might be different at all. Only now have we gained the scientific knowledge necessary to appreciate how exactly how deep a rabbit-hole the future really is: not just long enough to see empires rise and crumble, but long enough to make all human history so far seem like a sneeze of the gods.
Erica Grieder prognosticates:
[I]n forecasting the human future the fundamental questions are about worth, rather than abilities. That's a standard we don't apply to other species—we want to save the tigers, for example, because we believe they have intrinsic value—and an appropriate one. So one of my predictions for the future is that as the futurological concerns become more vivid, it will lead to a rise in the prominence and relevance of moral reasoning and argumentation.
The Dish 