The promise of exponential improvement has been a real letdown so far. Many minds in the past predicted that by 2022, robots would look human, cars would fly, and VR would outmatch waking life.
Yet here we are, sourcing energy from wires hung between stumps of wood, and praying that Wi-Fi isn’t interrupted by bad weather. Needless to say, reality could use a boost from science fiction.
Thirsty? Just Break a Sweat
Planning a spice-mining expedition? Water’s hard to come by on Arrakis, so once the ol’ ornithopter’s charged and ready to go, make sure to pack a stillsuit.
Recycled sweat may not be the sexiest innovation science fiction’s ever dreamt up, but the ecological benefits of Dune’s stillsuit are manifold. For starters, a technology that converts bodily excretions—saliva, urine, perspiration—into safe drinking water would alleviate challenges faced by regions vulnerable to drought and pollution.
Squeezing Through Traffic Just Got a Lot Easier
The elastic Knight Bus from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban always felt more like the brainchild of a mad scientist than an enchantment produced by the flick of a wizard’s wand. Is the bus itself expanding and condensing, or does the vehicle exert some kind of gravity-defying force to alter surrounding space? Either way, mass transit everywhere ought to look into it.
Then again, tons of high-speed, combustible rubber bending the fabric of reality are bound to cause a few wrinkles. The Harry Potter franchise may seem a strange place to turn to for ideas about what technologies the future could hold, but, as Arthur C. Clarke famously wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
You Can Mute Loud Cars, Noisy Construction Outside Your Window, and Even People!
Click may be a cautionary tale about inadvertently missing life’s meaningful moments while avoiding the boring and challenging ones, but those who claim they wouldn’t use a pocket-size tool to accelerate time and skip an overlong queue at the grocery store are lying. Besides, hitting fast-forward on an eight-hour shift at work doesn’t pose the same ethical dilemma as bifurcating and enslaving your consciousness.
And who’s even to say that such a device would predominantly be used to pass, rather than appreciate, time? Reliving a vacation seems just as likely a function as muting a work seminar.
Why Move On When You Can Forget?
Growing from your mistakes and learning from the past is noble, and all that, but some of us have jobs! If you’re short on the time and energy processing a painful breakup requires, the fine neuroscientists at Lacuna Inc., have got you covered.
Granted, you may wake up after the procedure feeling like a hollow shell of your former self, but don’t worry—there’s a pill for that! You’ll be back to work (and unplagued by the ghost of relationships past) in no time.
Maximize Living Space Without Ever Paying for Storage
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If you’re someone who wants more than your home can fit, you probably don’t watch Downsizing for its warnings about climate change. Rather, you see dozens of new accessorizing and decorating opportunities. If objects that are normally too heavy to manuever can be reduced to miniature stature and stored on a closet shelf, why not have a couch for every day of the week?
And think about how much simpler moving into a new home would be if our belongings could be miniaturized and swept into a bag. We’d never need to hire movers or deal with the hazards of transporting furniture again! Even the most precious and noisy cargo can be downsized. There won’t be a better time than moving day to say, “Honey, I shrunk the kids.”
Here’s to Never Waking Up Sooner Than 5 Minutes Before Work
From sleek, USS-Enterprise-grade transporters to bewitched footwear, teleportive devices of one sort or another have been in popular fiction forever. The benefits to individuals and society at large such a technology would theoretically provide are too many to count. Public transit, congested roads, and car accidents would become a thing of the past; air quality would improve; you’d never have to rush anywhere ever again!
But considering the amount of radiation we’re exposed to during x-rays and routine TSA scans, perhaps atomically dematerializing our bodies is a stone best left unturned. However, that isn’t to say there aren’t other practical applications a teleporter could serve—as long as Amazon InstaPrime deliveries come wrapped in ionized cellophane.
Swiss Army Robocat
Lightyear may not have taken off with general audiences at the box office, but many who’ve seen the Toy Story spinoff agree that Sox is the best thing about it. Buzz’s techno-feline pal is essentially the same friendly robot companion you’ve encountered in everything from Star Wars to Interstellar, but why lug R2-D2 around when you can explore the cosmos with a talking yellow cat? Even moments of the greatest despair will be leavened by Sox’s deadpan comedic timing.
He’s got a laser that can cut through steel, magnetic feet, and tranquilizer darts (in case you’re being chased by an intergalactic militia). Handy, clever, and adorable, Sox is an all-in-one survival kit.
Coming Soon to a History Class Near You
What if you could experience the past not via the entertainment industry’s bells and whistles, but an algorithm capable of rearranging matter and projecting it in time? As cheesy fun as dramatic reenactments in a documentary can be, nothing beats the ability to peek backward and witness actual historical events.
A relatively highbrow multiverse thriller, Alex Garland’s FX miniseries Devs asks incisive questions and proposes fascinating ideas, but what will stick long after you’ve finished its eight episodes is an image of computer geniuses staring wordlessly at a screen after, basically, discovering Christ. Indeed, it’s tough not to be awed by Garland’s vision.
Still Waiting
Set in 2015, the Back to the Future trilogy’s second entry promised a generation of children they’d be riding hoverboards in their lifetimes. But the world still looks a lot more like Part I than II.
Sadly, it seems like we’ll be waiting a while before technology allows us to jet across town like Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox). The next best thing is a fingerboard outfitted with magnets. Great Scott, what a disappointment!
Traditional Medical Care Becomes Obsolete
What if months of intravenous treatment and radiation could be replaced by a few minutes inside a device that looks no more complicated than a tanning bed? This is one that members of the medical profession aren’t going to be pleased by.
Elysiumpaints a dour and inegalitarian picture of the future. But would such a technology necessarily increase disparities? At the very least, we can be optimistic that the unprecedented engineering needed to produce this theoretical device would have wide-ranging, universally beneficial applications.
