On Mon, 30 Jun 1997, Captain Jack wrote:

My opinion is from something I've heard:  Man's understanding of the
world doubles about every 7 years.  This means by 2032, we will know
more than 32 times as much as we do today.  In as short of timespan as
that, that is a great deal of knowlege that we will have learned.

There was an article in Analog magazine, in 1960, which proved, by
extrapolation, that we would have faster than light travel around 1982.  (I'm
not that old; I read it in a reprint collection.)

The problem with the reasoning?  A lot of trends follow an S-shaped curve
where something increases slowly, then increases fast, then goes back to
increasing slowly again.  We'll reach a point of diminishing returns.

Whether this happens before we get boomers, hardsuits, and beam satellites,
I have no idea, though.