[cjg]

It's predicated on accelerating technological progress, which can perhaps be seen to be true by looking back at how quickly society has moved through different technological regimes. Once change becomes too fast, it's impossible to predict what is about to happen. It's called "the singularity" with a loose analogy to black holes where a big curvature means that light cannot escape - with fast enough technological progress, the immediate future is highly uncertain.

The most commonly expected way that this might happen is via AGI - perhaps with self-improving AI - where a sudden increase in AI abilities might drive extremely rapid technological change.