"especially given a larger, wealthier society with more leisure time."
Didn't technology promise that to us 50 years ago? Now we're busier than ever.
Re:The Search for MH 370 (Inmarsat)
by reitzensteinm on Thursday October 16, 2014 @10:03PM
(#8469034)
This suggests that's not the case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Gradual_decrease_i...
And work aside, think about living life without modern conveniences such as washing machines, dishwashers, fridges and freezers, vacuum cleaners, electric/gas ovens, microwaves, kettles and air conditioning.
Running a household a hundred years ago (or fifty years ago depending on wealth) would have been a much more time consuming affair for a significantly lower standard of living. I expect that trend to continue.
It may be practically impossible to find with today's technology, but if the next 100 years of progress is anything like the last, there'll be large scale hobbyist exploration of the sea floor.
The surface area of the world is 510,072,000 km², 70% of which is ocean. That's absurdly large if you're exploring it with 8 figure submarines, but not at all if you're exploring it with the 2114 equivalents of 2014 $100 aerial drones, especially given a larger, wealthier society with more leisure time.