Mark, "If we and aikido are still around I think rank (no common standard) and organisations (too many) will have become so meaningless as to be ignored" - here I was thinking MikeE was the optimist, no rank or organisations?
Au contraire I agree, we will see a multitude of both with ever more grandiose titles introduced by to justify preeminance (super shihan a la dragonball springs to mind..). However, far from them being ignored they will become even more important to the bureaucratic and even used as basis for government "teaching certificates", aikido-l seminar members will be hunted down as the deviant mas that they are...