the future is bright

as an enthusiastic follower of events at the royal society of arts, i attended the lecture by richard watson, a futurist. that what he calls himself, as opposed to futurologist (that's the guys who see aliens walking the earth etc. ). watson promoted his book *future files - a history of the next 50 years*.
what struck me first at the lecture was an astonishment at what bollocks people can make a living with. i understand that watson consults companies and anyone who pays him on projected trends and developments in the next 5 to 10 years. he rarely goes beyond 20 he says. well, for the sake of his book and this lecture, he did.
watson's future predictions range from the end of newspapers (no surprise) to robots working in care homes (already happening in japan) to one global currency (but will i get credit?) and amusingly to the end of belgium (he admitted to adding that one just to annoy a friend). in the meantime, and on a much smaller scale, i can give to the world my prediction of the near end of sachsen-anhalt, germany's most pointless federal state. the audience members looked for the most part too old to care what the world looked like in 50 years because they will be dead then.
the futurist raised one interesting question: in light of the massive rescue actions in the banking world, will corporations, and people, not be allowed to fail anymore? but this has little to do with the future in 50 years. even though predictions say more about the present than the future.

maybe my future is in futurism?