What happened to the future?

Oct 12, 2009

By Andrew Lissimore

"Your flying car for 1967"

Remember back in the day when you'd read about "The Car of the Future" in Popular Mechanics magazine? We dreamed of 3D highways in the skies; of a family jaunt over the Grand Canyon for a look-see; then to Seattle for lunch parked around the rim of the Space Needle. What ever happened to those cars? Where did that dream go?

I wonder how hot it is in there?

Well, it turns out it's a lot easier to say, "anti-gravity drive," than it is to actually build one. In fact, it might be enough to observe that bubble roofs make it hard to have a windshield wiper or windows that open. It's just so much easier to dream of the future than to actually pull it off. Doesn't stop us from dreaming, though.

Nokia has been doing some dreaming about the future. It seems that while we may not be able to have the flying cars we were promised in the '50s, a heads-up display like fighter pilots have might be possible. I wonder. Are we really gonna want to be wired up all the time? How much harder is it going to be to push the keyboard away when it's almost inside your head? If Nokia gives you a heads-up display, will Ericsson try to put a connector in your neck? Or will the glasses just end up in your junk drawer? What do you think? Nokia Research Center introduction to Mobile Mixed Reality

What happened to the future?

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