It is true that the stereotypical
mad scientist breed is a dying race. There are far less old men with white hair tinkering with the
basic elements of life with intentions of
world domination than there used to be 30 or 40 years ago. Where have all these old men gone?
I'm pretty sure many of them now congregate in Florida, in lavish retirement communities. Their younger counterparts see no need for mad science as a means to take over the world, instead doing this as a means to get more stock options in whichever company they work for.
So, it would seem as if the term Mad Scientist is now vacant. That's not true. I believe that all the Mad Scientists today are the black hatters and the script kiddies over the world. They're the ones who do their work, for usually no pay until the blackmail scheme goes through. They're the ones who prefer to work from their basement, never emerging to see the light of day. I can imagine these young persons in 50 years, frayed, disheveled, incomprehensible. Much like the stereotypical Mad Scientist of today, these Mad Computer Scientists of tomorrow will be the ones talking on the phone with foreign nations, demanding that they pay them X sum of money, or else they will unleash their creation on the unsuspecting masses.