So, I'm living about forty years in the future from when I was ten and pondered the question. If you had asked me at ten what the future would be like? I would have been overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. Our future will be like that.

Living in the future is like visiting Canada from the United States. It looks about the same, but there are some minor cultural differences you feel out of step with. There are some things, like milk in a bag, that you would never expect to have existed, but for the most part it's pretty much the same.

Look at technology. It's extensions of what were there before, not completely alien. The internet? No too different from logging into a BBS with a 300 Baud modem back in the eighties. Smart phones? I had a friend with a phone in his car back in 87 or so.

Societal changes? Those are hard to adjust to. Back when I was a young activist type, raging against the man and all, I never would have guessed how far we would come...and how many step backwards we would take. Marriage equality? I always supported by gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in change. I can tell you that the goals back then were just survival. the idea that gay marriage would be celebrated by 2015? Never even crossed our minds in our wildest dreams. Racial equality, however, took some backwards steps. Back then people could at least discuss race. Today? Hell, that's become a third rail subject. Free expression? I grew up fearing the Moral Majority types...ignoring the people who would come from the other side of the issue, and silence speech in a similar fashion.

Still, one finally accept that the changes in the world are for the young. Me? I'm happy to sit back on my porch and yell at the kids on my lawn. You folks runt he world. I had my turn.

Point is, the future is going to be more familiar than you think...because you're the one who builds it.