the tag of "the future of bitcointalk" might be misleading. There's no telling if any low-ranked, highly-merited member is going to stick around for the long term.
Obviously, the tag doesn't apply to all listed users, and some unlisted users will probably make it too. But it's the best indication I have, and users without Merit certainly won't become the future of this forum.
It would be interesting to revisit these members who've made it into this thread in about 5 years to see if they were indeed the future of the forum.
There's no need to wait that long, this topic is almost 4 years old. Just check which names on the first page you recognize:
They're all Legendary now.