The job of “futurist” is a tricky one. It’s kind of like that of a meteorologist, without the science. Similar to meteorologist, futurists offer easy conversation starters.

For instance, the next time you’re at a cocktail party, replace “How about this weather we’re having,” with “Did you hear spelling will be extinct by the year 2025?”

That is, in fact, a claim made by the futurist website NowandNext.com in a new infographic of an “extinction timeline.” According to the infographic, spelling, blogging, Web 2.0, and the Maldives will vanish in the next 10 to 15 years. Direct marketing, it claims, will go extinct even sooner. Physical newspapers, meanwhile, won’t disappear until closer to 2050, and along with them, Google (and blindness).

The timeline doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously, though. NowandNext.com points out that futurists will be extinct by 2050 and one year later, lists of predictions will also go the way of the dodo.

Here’s the full infographic (click here if you have trouble viewing it):



(via Business Insider)