Looking into the future

I'm aware that this is way off topic for this list, but I like listening in to the learned discussion going on here and I'd like to know what you think about this. Shoot it down if it's a bad idea.

Since reconstruction of past languages started, we have learnt a lot about language development over time and about the way words change according to sound laws. What if we used this knowledge not to look into the past, but to take a look into the future? An educated guess what English (or your mother tongue) could sound like 500 years from now would be exciting to read. Have there been any serious attempts at doing this? Are the uncertainties involved too large, making this a useless idea?

Hakan,
lurker