Singularity

What happens when computers become advanced enough that they surpass human brains in capability? Or when human brains become advanced enough that they - use quotes there as preferred - are different from us?  Or when people are able to augment their own bodies and minds to a similar point?

The Singularity, that's what, a point beyond which humanity's place in the world is so different from now, it can't be predicted, understood, comprehended. Some people embrace this change, others are repelled by it, still others don't see it happening at all. It's like clean controlled fusion, definitely happening within 10 years. Or if not, the 10 years after that.

Here's another possibility, though: If The Singularity approaches around the mid 2040s, it will be acknowledged, recognized - and shunned. At that point, the Crisis would have been over for about 20 years, and an intervening High would be ending. The Awakening could certainly head in favor of embracing our cybernetic future and being our own saviors. Something about the current state of the world, though, indicates that the response would instead be to run the other way, toward an even more naturalistic life.

Indeed, it's possible that after about 20 or 30 years of ubiquitous smartphones allowing direct connection to all human knowledge and entertainment, there will be a mass movement to disconnect. People will boast about their lack of a portable phone the way some people today do about not having a television. They may even not have a home internet connection, and will insist that the lack makes them better people.

Now that's an unpredictable vision of the future.