...we'll use plugins that emulate vintage plugins that model vintage gear.
"Dude have you heard the Neo1176? Such a faithful reproduction of the CLA76"
"Yeah mate it's sick. It sounds so 1966 as remodeled in 2012!"
"Yeah"
"Yeah"

I think musicians and producers will always use gear that they think sounds, musically the best, regardless of whether it emulates something old or is something new.

I don't know. I suspect that the time is coming where musical trends meld together across the globe, fusing into a thundering unity as humanity comes together in one voice, saying, "Duh..."
 
Instead, I think people in the near future will be amused that old timers ever used to care about how things sounded since music is nothing but background noise to them. Shortly after that, of course, civilization will collapse and humanity will descend into mute grunting as their only means of communication. Zombies will look at humanity and say, "Brains?" We won't understand the question.
 
I could really use more coffee this morning.  

In 20 years time this is how I envision our studios will look like. Here's me standing among my new Waves Kryptonite bundle, which I got on sale for $59,999 (WUP not included)
 

In 20 years somebody will be marketing a one-knob skill/talent emulator. It'll ironically be endorsed by the last remaining audio engineer that actually understands what it purports to do.

In 20 years, we'll all be back to banging rocks together.

trtzbass
...we'll use plugins that emulate vintage plugins that model vintage gear.
"Dude have you heard the Neo1176? Such a faithful reproduction of the CLA76"
"Yeah mate it's sick. It sounds so 1966 as remodeled in 2012!"
"Yeah"
"Yeah"

I was thinking that the line will be like ... did you actually play that on the guitar?
 
Thought so!