I foresee a future where it is cheaper to make a derailleur that is battery powered and cheaper to make a shifter with simple buttons, rather than all those cogs, pawls, and whatever they use internally, all connected using an open wireless protocol, and everything is programmable with your phone. It will be backwards compatible back to the old 5 speed too since you set the spacing and it just moves that amount at the click of the button. It will know the range of the chainrings and cogs and will know its own mechanical range and shift accordingly. SRAM is getting closer to this but Shimano needs to catch up.