NPR has a nice photo essay documenting occupations that are now obsolete (e.g., typist, lamplighter, copy boy). Anybody care to speculate about the occupations in our day that will likely be obsolete fifty years from now?
It’s a tricky thing to predict. Thirty years ago, would anyone have predicted that we in the U.S. would all be living with baristas and brewmasters? The NPR feature says that the milkman is making a comeback as people are getting more interested in fresh, locally produced dairy products. See “Hey, Milkman!” in Maryland, or The Little Milkman in Portsmouth, N.H.