Free-energy will bail the current failing systems out, IMHO, and there will be no failure to the current paradigms, as many are expecting.  Free-energy will allow humanity to turn Antarctica into a giant NYC.  But we are never going into space.  Cosmic radiation prevents humanity from going forward into Star-Trek-ville, and there is no imaginable way around that.  Earth is all we got.  Will people be happy living in a world devoid of nature, with a trillion people living off hydroponic systems in a global mega-city?  People can easily multiply 10-fold every 100 years, resources permiting.  10 billion, 100 billion, 1 trillion ... in just 200 years.  I am not so sure if free-energy is a savior or a curse.  But it is here ... http://www.blacklightpower.com/

I would not want to live in that kind of world.  I prefer nature to people, most don't, but the majority rules.