Besides... if that future does exist... who will maintain these monster computing clusters ? New kids out of college, or the guys who have been working in IT for the past decade already ?

Get some experience under your belt ASAP, even if it is as a Help Desk jockey. All time in the IT field counts when you are looking for an IT job. At least it shows that you have the troubleshooting mindset, and have a familiarity with the terminology and pace of the industry. Anything else is just someone who read a bunch of books and thinks they can do it. Nothing replaces hands-on experience.