For the past century science fiction has been promising us a future filled with hoverboards, force fields, invisibility cloaks, and moon bases. Unfortunately your dreams of driving a flying car to work are probably going to remain unfulfilled for the time being, but you would be surprised how close we are to developing the technology required for most of the items on this list of 25 futuristic things we are still waiting for.
Ever since Germany tried using them to launch soldiers over minefields in World War II, jetpack use has for the most part been limited to classy English spies and astronauts. This may be one of the first items to get bumped off this list, however, as Martin Aircraft Company in New Zealand just signed a multi million dollar deal to make them commercially available.Sure, we already have this to some extent, but we’re talking Matrix level here – something that taps directly into brain. Given the advances we’ve seen in this department over the past few years though, it’s not too far off.Not to be confused with virtual reality, augmented reality doesn’t replace the real world with a simulated one but simply enhances your experience by giving you some extra, computer generated feedback about it. Think Terminator vision. The coolest part about this however, is that it is probably closer to becoming a reality than almost anything else on this list with researchers at the University of Washington close to developing contact lenses that will give you bionic vision.As cool as it would be to never have to chew again, this one is likely to stay on this list for a while. On average you require around 2,000 calories every day, but even if you condensed all of that into calorie packed, fat filled pills you would still have to swallow over half a pound of them before going to sleep again. There is still hope, however, as scientists say they are close to coming out with chewing gum that somehow manages to simulate a three course meal.Depending on your definition of cyborg this may or may not already be a reality. In fact, there are numerous cases of people losing body parts only to have them replaced with mechanized versions. As far as running into RopoCop on the street though…that could still be a while.There is only so much you can do with bullets and in the future, where everything is bulletproof, the man holding the laser gun wins. Of course, while the military already has laser guns they only shoot invisible beams, which means you might as well just keep your bullets because no one will know you’re the cool guy holding the laser gun anyway (until we get to the bulletproof future of course).The irony of everything being bulletproof is that in order to keep stuff from being destroyed everything also has to be surrounded by force fields. (Why? Go back and review the previous entry on lasers) On a serious note, however, this technology is more or less already being deployed on the battlefield. Some tanks are actually protected by a system that will detect an incoming projectile and dump a huge electric charge into the plating surrounding the vehicle effectively creating an electromagnetic field that repels the missile.Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once noted that in the future fashion will be a thing of the past, and as every trekkie knows it’s only a matter of time before we’re all wearing that same silver one-piece jumpsuit.Yeah, we know these things already exist, but none of them are anywhere near the level of cool that shoots out of R2D2′s face. And besides, making 2D images appear to be 3D is kind of cheating. Maybe we just have to wait until someone comes out with…Not to be confused with cyborgs, androids are 100% machine…no humans body parts included. What they do have in common, however, is that they are both very near to becoming a reality with huge advances over the last several decades in implementing artifial intelligence.Ever since Plato mentioned Atlantis thousands of years ago humanity has eagerly anticipated either the discovery or construction of massive underwater empires. Unfortunately our hopes have been dashed repeatedly by the fact that the water pressure on the bottom of the ocean is far too great for anything but specially engineered submersibles to withstand. There are, however, numerous underwater resorts popping up around the world (see #2 in our list of the 25 coolest hotels ever)Although these may sound less feasible than their underwater counterparts, the truth is that we are a lot closer to seeing babies born on the moon than on the ocean floor. And for one, at least we’ve already walked on the moon…or have we?While it’s understandable that we wouldn’t have some of the things on this list yet (time travel, teleportation), flying cars have been somewhat of a disappointment. And it’s not like we don’t have the technology (plane + car = flying car), so we have to assume that the government is hoarding them all. See our list of the 25 most popular conspiracy theories.Although some of you may have had fantasies about your microwave just popping food out of thin air like in the Star Trek universe, for all intents and purposes matter cannot be created or destroyed (apart from the craziness that is quantam mechanics), so unfortunately, as with lightsabers (#10), this is one of the less feasible items on this list. NASA is, however, in the process of potentially developing a compact cooking machine that could store ingredients and much like a 3D “printer” output complete food products on demand.There is probably not even one person reading this list that didn’t dream about flying when they were little. Although a more realistic hope for your childhood dreams coming true would probably be #25 (jetpack) there are several technologies out there that do simulate antigravity to some extent (see #14 on our 25 fastest things in the universe).1 2
NOT zombie apocalypse, NUCLEAR apocalypse.
The list should also include the hidden blade.
@junction99 Well, we can still stop it. The best way we currently know of is ptinlang more trees. There is evidence that the newly-formed forests in the Devonian Period may have caused the ice age at that time.Other solutions: Solar power, nuclear energy (not my favourite though, the use of so much water is not very good), Air Filters, Wind Turbines, battery Switching Stations. Let’s not worry about what started it!! Let’s fix it!
i swear to god , i’m still waiting for these amazing thing to come to reality …
nice topic
You forgot “Smart people”
yah