2011, Past and Future

Year 2000 had long been looked up at as 'the end of the world', 'the ultimate point of technological advancements',... People believed that in 2000 we'd be driving flying cars and living on other planets (e.g: in 2001: Space Odyssey).
But none happened. In fact 2000 was another crappy new year, just like the previous ones, except for a little more extravaganza here and there. A bit more jazzy one could say. It had been "some very far point in future" for such a long time; so far one could not realize the gap. And it remained one even until before the New Year's day.
It's first of Jan. 2011 now and people are awaiting the catastrophic prophecies of "2012". A film so good in CG and production that shakes the viewers.

The film 2012 was not the first to use breathtaking visual effects. In fact Avatar, for example, was no less brilliant in CG, however the majority of people thought of it as a 'story', perhaps with some lessons to teach. However, 2012 talks about earth, about our planet. Its imagination gives the viewer an idea of what his land is going to look like ravaged by forces of nature. It shows what has never been shown to this clarity: the end of the earth we know. It shows the unseen dooms day.
I do not intend to judge the accuracy of this prophecy. What I understand is the effect of a movie on people's minds. What I see is the mass of legends created around this subject. Next year might have been cited as the end of the world in some religions as the movie shows, but if the fear would not have been triggered by this film no one would have ever cared or believed in it. In fact the movie was so good it became the prophecy itself.

What do you think about future? Do you think 2020 has anything 'super cool' to offer us? Or is it going to be the same a-bit-faster-cars, a-bit-taller-buildings, a lot more war, ...?