Future Predictions By IBM's Scientists - Are these Something New?

"It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future", but it seems this saying has been proved wrong by IBM Scientists as they predict the life we shall live after 5 years. In their report they foresee a world based on smart sensing and computing. Automatic buses, personalized education system, medical diagnosis in minutes through DNA and computing.

Despite the fantasy and excitement of all these predictions don't you feel we have already heard this all before ? In various studies, and long before that Alvin Toffler in his "Future Shock" already indicated many of the future changes which surprised everyone and his book became one of the bestsellers earning a Documentary too.  Alvin questions "tens of millions of children today are forced by law to spend precious hours of their lives grinding away at material whose future utility is highly questionable. (Nobody even claims it has much present utility.) Should they spend as much time as they do learning French, or Spanish or German? Are the hours spent on English maximally useful? Should all children be required to study algebra? Might they not benefit more from studying probability? Logic? Computer programming? Philosophy? Aesthetics? Mass communications?" He further asserts, "Youngsters are given little choice in determining what they wish to learn" and concludes "Education must shift into the future tense." If we talk of the automatic buses thought of IBM, Mr. Toffler had already made word on that too,"In the technological systems of tomorrow—fast, fluid and self-regulating—machines will deal with the flow of physical materials; men with the flow of information and insight. Machines will increasingly perform the routine tasks; men the intellectual and creative tasks. Machines and men both, instead of being concentrated in gigantic factories and factory cities, will be scattered across the globe, linked together by amazingly sensitive, near-instantaneous communications. Human work will move out of the factory and mass office into the community and the home."

What I opine is, OK we create a buzz in the market about various future technologies, happenings and many such things, but are we really trying it today to make it happen tomorrow? Scientists say it would happen in 5 years, but in practicality do we really find it feasible? How many Online Schools we have right now, rarely you can find any. Of all the predictions made, I think the Education one should really happen fast, because right now we are not educating students, we are just training them to be a good competition to others. Today children who enter school quickly find themselves part of a standard and basically unvarying organizational structure: a teacher-led class. One adult and a certain number of subordinate young people, usually seated in fixed rows facing front, is the standardized basic unit of the industrial-era school. As they move, grade by grade, to the higher levels, they remain in this same fixed organizational frame: They gain no experience with other forms of organization, or with the problems of shifting from one organizational form to another. They get no training for role versatility.

What do you think - about IBM's Predictions, my take and whatever else you feel to express here regarding the issue.

Your thoughts are Welcome.