[wildfireskunk]

I don't think anything any of us come up with would be anywhere near what it's likely to be like, provided that we don't wipe ourselves out with nuclear weapons before we find a way of colonising other planets. The question itself raises a myriad of other questions which could merit a good discussion before even considering it... Will we ever achieve near light/light speed/faster than light travel? What will medical and technological advancements have done to humankind in that time? Will we have created AI that lives upto what people expect in science fiction, and that won't do a Terminator/Matrix on us? Will we have made alien contact, and will it being friendly/hostile?

Personally, I'd like to imagine that in 500 years time human beings are living in a manner somewhat similar to how Ian Banks writes in his books written within the Culture universe. But I'm just a fanboy as I love those books. :3