Fast forward 25 years, what will audio be like?

"Under circumstances like that, audio will be an impossible luxury. "

High end audio is already a luxury.

Good sound is more available to more today than ever before. It starts with an ipod and earbuds. IT gets better from there as needed. A computer, decent DAC and headphones is well within the reach of many and can sound pretty darn good, though perhaps not by audiophile standards, which have and always will exist in the "luxury" domain.

"Music will be passe, no one will be listening to it anymore."

I doubt that.

There will always be something new to listen to that registers with people. WIll it be different or innovative compared to the past? That one I am not so sure about.

Schubert, interesting choice of the cause of WW2. But as an example of foreseeing the future I don't think it's particularly compelling. Basically, France and Germany have been in conflict since the time of Julius Caesar. To predict another conflict between them in recent light of the Franco-Prussian War and the Great War borders on the trivial. The French constructed the Maginot Line because they knew Germany was a serious threat.

It's important to remember that Nazi Germany could have readily won WW2. Not invading the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 and not declaring war on the U.S. after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor would have allowed Germany the ability to construct a true fortress Europe. At the time of Operation Barbarossa the German command bravely predicted a quick summer campaign and the rapid collapse of the Soviet foe. After all, that's what happened every time they invaded other countries. I guess they couldn't correctly predict the future either.

Leaders know about the known unknowns, but it's the unknown unknowns that will get you.

Frogman, In 25 years EBM will have substantially larger dictionary to communicate. I can even see it now that later on he uses more words than prior.
Let's hope that his dictionary will be sufficient enough to provide meaningful responses.

Ohhwy61, you have a grasp of "facts" and no understanding of history .