A computer will pass the Turing test by 2029.

Seventeen of the world's most wired minds stake their names – and their cash – on the future.

Pronouncements about the future come easy. Even when made with an air of authority, they're usually just cheap talk, rarely revisited. Only the tiny fraction that have proven correct tend to be remembered, when their authors want to take credit.

But what if there were some cash at stake ?