What did I get from teaching "the future"?

I know we can't "know" the future but "The Limits to Growth" was being published, in 1972.  My friend is a wily historian who knows the complete past.  The two of us were interested in what MIT and the Club of Rome had to say.  One thing led to another and the two of us agreed to create a course "Futures" and we did.  Note the plural, one of several nods to our ignorance and the difficulties of seeing into the future.

I have been asked a couple of times about what I learned from reading and from teaching that course.  Basically, I found out that "futurists", soothsayers and fortune-tellers have a propensity to predict dark troubles. I guess it is only natural to want to warn of coming troubles and problems.  I realize that some predictions are that if I have been a good enough boy, I will die and go to paradise, where everything is good and pleasant and there are no negatives.  We'll see.