So, although in present day perl (and other non-java langs) are passe, near future might change that... we could see a renaissance of thought-intensive languages like lisp and functional programming

The more esoteric functional way, or how I prefer it, mixing functional and real OO (not Java-style), is here today. Perl6 is coming along, Ruby is here, and if you can deal with it, Python is also here. I like Ruby a lot.

The point is, perl6 is looking nothing like perl5, it looks like an overdesigned language for CS students, not fit for real world, BUT, maybe, this is the best way to go?

I don't think overdesigned languages have anything to do with CS students. There were some bad "teaching" languages, but CS students should aspire to elegance, simplicity, and languages that smell of theory, mathematics, or really-funky-stuff. Those stiff languages are more "industry" things, which is how we ended up with Java. Corporate America twisted our once-cool computer science programs into becoming places to crank out "programmers" and only a select few (say 15% or less) of people coming out of Universities today really grasp what CS is about or what it could have been.

So, anyhow, continue to aspiring to the theory. I doubt corporate drones are going to embrace Perl6, it's already part of the Java culture to bash Perl upside the head, and I am having trouble getting some Java drones to even look at Ruby ... though they do somehow like Python. I don't get it really, though, Python is kind of ugly and mechanical, and makes you jump through contortions ... just like Java.

Anyhow, I may not be a Lisp-head, but Paul Graham seems to have it right about the Hackers & Painters bit, and how we're all really lost in a sea of people who "work at programming" versus people who really love it, understand it, and think about theory, extension, and enjoy "academic" languages (which are so ever increasingly being obliterated in the evil corporate realm).

But I think there is is hope. I see that today in Ruby (minus CPAN! They need a CPAN!), and Perl6 when it arrives may hopefully suplant that. I still use Perl for all of my major tasks, mainly because it is incredibly powerful and has a great user community. Functional perl can be very elegant, OO perl can be elegant after a few hoops are jumped through, but it is still incomplete as compared to the smoothness at which you can, say, redefine a class on the fly in Ruby.

because everyone knows java, and it has reputation of allowing cheap/poor programmers to contribute..

True! And sad, because I hate to work with these people. I'd rather have 2 good developers in a department than 2 good developers AND 10 poor ones. it also has a propensity for draining the souls out real hackers. Rage, rage, against the dying of the light...