I'm not going to lie, i only read the first and last pages of this so if someone mentioned it in the second or third page, sorry. But, as of now, hardware is WAY ahead of software. Most new computers have dual core processors, but we barely use any of it (i'm talking home, average user computers). People are talking about 100 core processors, but would we really need that much power? How much of it will go to waste? Right now, i have my Pentium D 3.2 GHZ dual core processor. With yahoo widgets, firefox, and windows media open it is barely going over 6% (it fluctuates, but 6 is about the average). So even with insane virtual reality and stuff, would we use all that hardware?
But anyway, people have been saying the world is going to end in 20 years for century's. I heard something "experts" in the 50's predicted that by the new millennium, our water would run out. Looks to me like they were wrong. So i think with the rapid advancement of technology, we will be able to find a cleaner form of energy. That is, of course, assuming that we dont find a really really good way to blow ourselves up first.