After being a doom and gloomer during Y2K, I'm reluctant to totally give in to my natural pessimism. There is hope even if we can't make all the connections right now. Our information isn't 100% perfect.

Yup. Esp. our 'information' about the future.

However, that doesn't mean one shouldn't take future somewhat seriously and perhaps even do some planning - and of course revise, when the future finally unfolds differently.