I don't think you have a significant lack of understanding. If you lack anything it is the ability to consider those things in a different context, i.e. the context of the probable future.

Of course, there is a very good chance that the future will be something other that what I or Roddenberry or Kurtzweil envision. If the Manufactured Intelligence my prognostications are predicated upon fails to be brought into existence, I will be laughably wrong. OTOH if a couple of things happen more aggressively than my intentionally conservative guesstimates, I will be laughably wrong in the other direction.

I did not predict the advent and take up of mobile phones/computers. The world wide web was a bit of a surprise to me. Hell, I thought few people needed or would spring for a color monitor. I'm guessing. I hope it turns out to be an educated guess I can't advise betting your lunch money on what I think is coming.