The Future Is...Now

Do you ever have those moments where you do something, or see something, and realize that we live in the future? I don't mean that you pass someone on the sidewalk and notice that you are both wearing silver one piece seamless body suits, but those little moments when you look at the menu at a newer McDonald's and notice that the menus are actually flat-screen televisions and have little animations. If you have an iPhone, it is likely that you have these moments all of the time. Even though I do it routinely, it still blows my mind that if I think of a song I'd like to buy, I can connect to iTunes and buy the song, download it, and be listening to it on my phone within a minute or so of when I thought of it. And while we don't all have robot maids, and don't commute to work in an autopilot flying car, the face that I can put a chip in my shoe and go running, and that chip will tell my iPod how far I've ran and at what pace, and it will actually speak it to me through my headphones is pretty fucking impressive. Other things that come to mind: unmanned aircrafts, cloned pets, video billboards, turn-by-turn GPS navigation, video games that are looking more and more like real life (that you can play with a friend online), Google, the measuring tool thing that you just point at an object and it tells you how far away it is using a laser. These are all things that would have been mind blowing if they appeared in 'Back to the Future 2' (minus the hoverboards and the Cubs winning the World Series). Of course, it isn't all good. Several major cities have extensive security camera systems on street corners, and, thanks to the Bush administration, the government is apparently listening to our phone calls, but until we reach the inevitable moment where machines become self aware and rebel against the humans, I'll still view the future as a good thing.

The things that I find completely fascinating are the similarities and differences between what I pictured when I was young and what exists now. I remember my vision, when CDs were first coming out, that in the future all music would be listened to on CDs that were the size of a quarter, like it was some sort of mind-blowing vision. I also remember thinking that the future would be all about video phones, and while Skype is quite popular, the internet is a bit more multifaceted than what I was picturing. However, flat screen TVs, especially these ultra-slim OLED TVs that are starting to pop up, are exactly what the future promised to be. However, we don't always meet our deadlines. It seems like the year 2000 mark was a popular milestone for many writers and filmmakers creating visions of the future in the last 100 years, but their visions of the future usually involve living in outer space, and flying cars, and lots of lasers.

When I was about 10 years old, I came across a book called 'Future Stuff' by Malcolm Abrams and Harriet Bernstein (first published by Penguin Books in 1989). It was a book promised "more than 250 useful, time-saving, delicious, fun, stimulating, and energy-saving products that will be available by the year 2000". It contained a brief description of each item, and provided a calculation of how likely it was that this invention would come to fruition, along with a rough estimate time of arrival. This was my favorite book for quite some time. I recently found "Future Stuff" on a shelf in my old bedroom at my parent's house and was highly amused at what was inside.

Some entries were kind of endearing in their small thinking, taking current technologies and just moving them to the next level of convenience:

• Telephone-Activated VCR: "This device lets you program your VCR from and Touch Tone phone anwhere in the world. It works with any VHS or BETA VCR equipped with infrared wireless remote control" (Odds: 100%, ETA: 1990)

• Movable Phone Jack: "Have you ever wished you could just plug in your telephone anywhere you wanted? Well, soon you'll have that wish, providing you have a phone, phone service—and electricity! All you'll need is a two-part unit called a Phonex adapter." (Odds: 90%, ETA: 1990)

• Customized Music Cassettes: "For just a little more than you spend on an album, you will come home with one cassette tape bearing up to twenty-five songs that you, personally, have selected from the entire spectrum of recorded sounds." (Odds: 95%, ETA: 1990)

• Computer Shop-At-Home: "A floppy disk that comes with the start-up kit automatically dials into the network of merchants. Once the modem is connected to your phone and the graphics card is adapted to your computer, just insert the software and you are on-line and ready to start spending money." (Odds: 100%, ETA: 1992)

Other entries seemed to be a bit weirder, containing technology that was theoretically possible, but that nobody would really ever need or even want:

• The Walking TV: "This television of the future will be able to walk freely from room to room without human help, boogie to MTV, and add drama to action-packed chase scenes by leaning into the curves" (Odds 50%, ETA 1995)

• Ultrasonic 3-D Clothes: "By the end of the year 2000, customers will choose colors, fabrics, and details by computer, have body scans, and get the finished outfit, all in a matter of minutes" (Odds: 75%, ETA: 1993)
• Electronic Deodorant: "Users adminster a series of approximately twelve half-hour treatments to obtain about six weeks of sweat-free protection." (Odds: 100%, ETA: 1990)

• Robot Dog: "This 'pet' can obey fifteen commands, turn in different directions, pick up objects, and detect a human presence. And it has an infrared sensing system so that it doesn't bump into furniture or walls." (Odds: 50%, ETA: 1991)

Others contained promises that we are still waiting for:

• Voice-Activated Typewriter: "Will we really be able to sit back, put our feet up, and let our vocal cords do the typing? Chances are we will." (Odds: 90%, ETA: 1995) [Side note: Doesn't it always seems like we are right on the doorstep of having something that will type out what we are speaking? Why does this still not really exist for average consumers?]

• Holographic Bifocal Contact Lenses: "You've no doubt seen holographs. Most credit cards now have holograph double images that change as you move the card. Well, these hard contacts are etched with concentric rings that split incoming light and also make two images that have equal intensity but different focal points. Your brain will instinctively pick the proper image on which to focus, depending on where you're looking." (Odds: 95%, ETA: 1991) [I suppose this does exist in the form of lasik eye surgery, it just isn't the always futuristic sounding 'hologram' that they write about]

We may not always live up to the past's expectations. We might travel in flying cars one day (although, I think that is more a matter of standardization and safety, not technological limitations), but I don't think we're ever going to be teleporting (unless we decide we're okay with creating a clone at a new location and just killing the copy of you that exists at the original location). We might one day locate a planet that has an atmosphere that could support human life, but we probably won't ever live there (since the time it would take to travel there would be longer than an average human life span). We will clone humans some day, but it won't be some instantaneous process where you are suddenly looking at an exact copy of your current self (a clone will probably always have to start as a baby). In the meantime, I'll just be happy that I can press a button on my phone and it will pinpoint my exact location on the planet.