Such ends have been predicted before, never to much success. Often right at the onset of a whole new revolution. Some guy in the late 1950s predicted "The end of ideology" in America. Then the sixties and everything after happened. The "end of science" was talked about in the 1880/1890s - then the 20th Century happened. Back in the late 1980/1990s people were talking about "The End of History" and that didn't seem to pan out either.
As to the idea that progress, particularly of the technological kind, is always "forward" that's a different issue.