I find just looking back 60 years ago to be quite enough to enjoy some scientific snobbery.
People thought setting off nuclear bombs was a great idea.
The most advanced scientists, in fields like geology, astronomy, climatology and medicine, as well as rocket science, genetics and materials, we know more than they did in 1953.
That is a VAST oversimplification.
There were actually some people, otherwise intelligent, who would loudly insist that there were no errors or contradictions in the Christian Bible (Or other “sacred literature” of their choice).
Fortunately, cures for compartmentalized minds were devised late in the 21st century.
It is noteworthy that many of these buffoons actually had to be forced into treatment. But they were grateful in retrospection. 
You know, people use to fear [del]cancer[/del] AIDS so much because they thought the people who caught it were bad people.
Can you believe back then they were worried about OVERpopulation??!?
That’s just because there’s a lot more room to grow in those fields. We can’t predict human behavior at anywhere near the level we can predict those other things you mentioned (save maybe the superstrings). I mean, we predicted the Higgs boson and then actually found it where we predicted it. Yet we still aren’t sure how SSRIs actually mediate depression, let alone anxiety.
Back in those days, people used to barbarically believe in gods and devils, and worship these things while slitting the throats of other people who did not believe in the same gods and devils. They used to spend a lot of time and effort building baubles and edifices to this worship, while others nearby suffered from hunger. We are lucky humanity evolved and won the fight against ignorance and threw off the shackles of “belief”, liberating ourselves from the ways of the ancient ones, so that we could focus on successfully living together and solving issues for ALL of us. They also had these quaint institutions called “countries” that, get this, used to pride-fully compete and fight one another over resources, and even ideas – this was called “war”. These countries were ruled by those that craved only power over others – they were known as “politicians” and served only their financial masters.
This sounds like a lot of the things they said at the 1900 World’s Fair. You know, when they thought those people in 2000 would be living like the Jetsons.
You might be right, but if I was a betting man, I’d say that the things you describe are far harder to achieve than they sound like. The future will remarkably different from today… but for reasons you haven’t even thought of.
You’re making the unsupported assumption that there’s an aging gene there to be turned off. It’s more likely that we get old due to an absence of various anti-aging genes. If that’s the case, then there isn’t a quick genetic fix. We’d need fundamental genetic restructuring to be immortal.
A very great many things will change by 2100, much less 2500, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine most of them. But I guarantee you that Earth, the mother planet, will still be remembered in 2500, and I’d be willing to bet a large sum of money that it’ll remain the seat of the majority of humanity (in whatever form “humanity” takes).
What form does this guarantee take?
Didn’t they try that around 1940… in Germany? 
I can’t believe humans swapped fluids to reproduce.
I can’t believe humans had to leave their creche-pads or show their non-avatar selves to other humans. Stuff couldn’t be delivered to or 3-D printed at your pad?
I can’t believe humans didn’t live their lives tracked 24/7 and weren’t monitored predictively for aberrent thoughts or the potential for aberrent actions.
I can’t believe humans were expected to make decisions without access to instant Big Data analysis and treading group support.
…yeah, we’re doomed. 
Why am I having a flashback to Demolition Man?
/heads off to Taco Bell for a fine dining experience…
I am having a flashback to Sleepers
Clicks “Like” button. Then “Thumbs Up.” Then adds “This!” comment.
Oh I don’t disagree at all.Psychology is a lot harder than physics, which is why we haven’t got very far with it yet (though we have a got a good deal further than many people are aware). What I am objecting to is the attitude that says, in effect “I am a physicist (or engineer) so I must be very smart. I don’t understand what psychologists and psychiatrists are on about, and they don’t have nice clean, definite answers like we physical scientists do, so it must all be bullshit and they must all be idiots.” It is all to common, even on these boards.
I may be a bit sensitive because I also came across a particularly blatant example of the “psychology is bullshit and not real science” on Metafilter recently, another board that is usually pretty smart (and where I sometimes lurk, but do not post).
I remember that movie!
2263:
I read how they kept the last smallpox vaccine in a lab for a long time. It reminded me of how we keep the last rapist swimming in that tank of breathable fluid, just as a curiosity. He makes a nice counterpoint to the world we live in today: finally free of violence, want and fear. We could start a whirlpool in there and let him die painlessly of hypoxia, but since that asteroid will wipe us all out in two years, we might as well go out on a grace note.
They used to cut down trees, make paper, print the news on it, and then throw the whole thing in the trash after a day.
They burned fossil fuels? Must have been way before every home had a Mr. Fusion.
Space exploration with humans? Instead of robots? Whatever for?
Paper currency instead of using retina scanners for transactions. Primitive.
They built weapons to kill each other. And thought that owning such weapons was an essential right. Amazing.