  We present a perspective on what the future holds for full configuration
interaction (FCI) theory, with an emphasis on conceptual rather than technical
details. Upon revisiting the early history of FCI, a number of its key
contemporary approximations are compared on as equal a footing as possible,
using a recent blind challenge on the benzene molecule as a testbed [Eriksen et
al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 11, 8922 (2020)]. In the process, we review the
scope of applications for which FCI continues to prove indispensable, and the
required traits in terms of robustness, efficacy, and reliability its modern
approximations must satisfy are discussed. We close by conveying a number of
general observations on the merits offered by the state-of-the-art alongside
some of the challenges still faced to this day. While the field has altogether
seen immense progress over the years - the past decade, in particular - it
remains clear that our community as a whole has a substantial way to go in
enhancing the overall applicability of near-exact electronic structure theory
for systems of general composition and increasing size.
