It ’s almost here , guys ! Flying car ! Jetpacks ! Hoverboards ! Or so we ’ve been promised . It seems these technologies are always just two year away . At least that ’s what the mediakeeps telling us .
Today we ’re look at promises for the near - future tense that have n’t quite make it yet . We want so urgently to believe that they ’re just over the horizon ! But we really wish that the horizon would contain actuate on us .
Flying Cars
Every six calendar month or so , the media run stories about how YOUR FLYING CAR IS ALMOST HERE ! Just two more years , they promise . Just two more years and you ’ll be fly like George Jetson . Except those two years go along getting pushed back .
Flying gondola have been a fantast staplesince the 1920s . And we ’ve even had real “ fell cars ” since the 1950s . Over the last half ten people likePaul Mollerand companies likeTerrafugiahave kept promising that soon they will become a mainstream realness . But until half of America has a Flying DeLorean in the garage , we ’re not quick to call this one realized .
Hoverboards
The only trouble ? The Hendo hoverboard is little more than April stuntfor the inventors to call forth money for their real end : Levitation in architecture for earthquake - proofing . That ’s right . Even if the Hendo was n’t fantastically noisy , difficult to contain , and only work on peculiar surface , we ’d still be waiting for quite a while for that hoverboard to become mainstream . Do n’t get your hopes up just yet .
Robot Butlers
The hope that we ’d one Clarence Day have a humanoid robot butler is older than the word automaton itself . Who would n’t want their very ownRosey the Robotto cook meals for them or blame up their dirty sock ? I know I would ! But humanoid robot are hard employment . They still have incredible obstacle ranging from assault and battery life to job with justgeneral dexterity .
Agencies like DARPA and company like Google have made tremendous strides in humanoid golem technology . But before we invite robots into our home to aid feed us salty snacks , we ’re live on to have to make certain they ’re a second more delicate than the robot pictured above .
Jetpacks
The jetpack is one of those technologies that , much like the flying car , we ’ve hadsince midcentury . The only job ? Just like the fly motorcar , it ’s tremendously wasteful .
Sure , you’re able to zip around for about 30 seconds . And it expect really really nerveless ! But we have yet to get up an energy beginning to propel a soul into the line that wo n’t run out after a simple hour . Oh , not to mention that whole safety thing .
Virtual Reality
There ’s no engineering science that ebbs and fall quite like practical reality . Unlike the flying car , various variation of VR headset have actually come to market in a semi - serious way . But can they accomplish mainstream winner ?
Facebook’spurchase of Oculusgives many hope that omnipresent VR is just around the box . And I desire they ’re right ! But consider me a skeptic until we have a way to make those headsets a bit more … compact .
Driverless Cars
The driverless car has a foresighted , dreadful account . We ’ve been hold off on this one since at leastthe 1930s . But reach a fully independent driverless car that ’s secure and reliable is fabulously unmanageable . Just ask the people at DARPA who were trying to make one at a hugger-mugger authorities installation backin the 1980s .
Thanks to companies like Google , the DARPA Challenge , and just about every car company in the creation , the fully automated driverless railroad car feels as close as ever . But hope of “ just two more years ” feel a morsel premature . We ’ve nearlycracked this nut . But sadly we have quite a while before the completely driverless car becomes mainstream . Until then the only thing we can say for sure is that we ’ll see plenty of article promise that the driverless automobile is “ just two years away ! ”
I lawfully desire I ’m wrong about every single one of these . I ’d jazz a automaton butler right now ! And driverless cars really would be keen ! But despite our popular conception of technological development , progress ispainfully obtuse . That ’s just the way matter work .
Tech ’s march through history is incremental and seldom materialize just as it was envisioned . That ’s the fun of the future ! But it ’s also what makes it soincredibly frustrating .
paleofutureProgress
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