I talked recently with a friend who works for a government agency messing around with the stuff and he was convinced that in the near future, the entertainment industry will be thrown on it's backside when holograms become better and affordable. He said, "Imagine on your layout, when a train stops, the crew actually gets off and oils around the locomotive and scale passengers, who can look like anyone you want, run to the train before it leaves!" He also said that someday, there won't need to be a layout at all, that you'd just set up the basic benchwork as a place for the computer to register where to place the digital layout you created. You design exactly what you want, press a button and it's suddenly there, as real looking as any real layout, with everything extracted from real places.
He also was convinced that historical re-enacting will no longer exist in 50 years, that you'll be able to go to Gettysburg or Normandy and every year, they'll digitally put all the soldiers into the real field, and show you the battle without anyone needing to show up with wool uniforms or weapons. No re-enactors to house, feed and deal with their issues, he promised.
I agree that this could (and will) happen if the technology someday exists, but people will always want the 'stuff' to sit on a shelf or be held in hand. In other words, those digital passengers running for the model train as it leaves would be great, but many will still want the physical model of said train to exist in real life.
I argued that while they might throw 50,000 digital soldiers into the field at Waterloo for the 250th anniversary of the battle, there'll always be a need for several guys dressed in the gear with the rifles, cannon and horses for spectators to walk around and be able to interact with.