Do We Live In The Future Yet?

Which would you want?

  • The telescopic bat

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hairdryer Coat

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Expanding Pizzas

    Votes: 1 4.3%
  • Hoverboards!

    Votes: 17 73.9%
  • Flying Car, but not a Delorean

    Votes: 5 21.7%
  • Power Laces

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Auto growing Fruit

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    23

Joined
May 17, 2010
Messages
2,198
Location
:|
Today I had fun reading the Back to the Future wiki. So yeah... while looking at the page for multichannel telly, I couldn't help but notice the targeted adverts for Virgin Media (a broadband TV service here in the uk). Hmmm, creepy! I'm looking at the page right now, and the adverts are for that recent flying car. Okay...

2015 is getting closer and closer! My opinion on the various whizzy futuristic doodads from BTTF2, if they would be practical and desirable beyond being cool etc:

Kirk Gibson Jr. Slugger 2000 adjustable bat
300px-Batterup.jpg


A telescopic bat? Okay so I guess this makes it more portable, but what mechanism would be inside it? Motors? That would break on impact! Maybe some sort of hydraulics or pneumatics? That would make it expensive and difficult to maintain. I would rather go for a bat that came in two halves and screwed together.

Auto-adjusting and auto-drying jacket
300px-Martyjacketdry.jpg


This wouldn't work with current technology. It would have to have some sort of hairdryer and car battery in there... and the thing would probably catch on fire and cause terrible deaths.

Okay, so let's assume it uses technology which works... some sort of nano engineering perhaps with millions of tiny fans and strands of battery woven into it. It could dry itself, which is nifty... but even better, the thing could keep you warm/cool in any weather! Would I buy a coat that would take the edge of of cold winter mornings and balmy summer afternoons? Yes.

Dehydrated pizza
180px-Vlcsnap-2009-10-13-16h14m32s218.jpg


I already eat quite a lot of microwave pizzas. This would mean I don't need to carry as much shopping. Yes please!

Garden Center fruit dispenser
250px-Gardencenter.PNG


If they could get it to work, I could certainly dig self grown fruit. I already had a friend get me to do this with lentils and chickpeas (they don't seem to grow, just expand) and the problem is always low yeild. Make this thing the size of a fridge and I'm sold.

Hoverboards
300px-Hoverboard.png


Great fun until it loses battery - at which point the board would crash and scape against the ground, and you would go flying. I've fallen off a skateboard before, and I couldn't walk properly for a week afterwards!

We have to have wireless electricity to keep all these gizmos charged up (and carry on running if the battery breaks). So for example, you would have wireless electrcity hotspots about town which would provide power.

As cool as they seem, I would get bored probably. Apart from the hovering aspect, it's just a normal skateboard. Sure, you could go on grass or gravel or whatever... but I still completely suck at skating. Maybe hovering would make me want to get better at it?

Flying Cars
250px-1985_delorean_c.jpg


I really want flying cars, but would they work? To stand any chance of actually happening, the things would have to mostly pilot themselves, and you'd be restricted to the sky lanes. That makes the flying part less exciting! Less traffic jams would be great though. I think the best aspect would be using the skylanes to zip between continents, providing it was actually cheaper than planes or ferries. What about a trans-alantic crossing though? Where would the power come from? Mr Fusion? And what about rest points? Would there be a floating platform in the middle of the ocean with a place to piss and get lunch?

It would make motor racing awesome though. I would start watching F1, or whatever came after it.

Powerlacing shoes
250px-Kicks.jpg


Providing we have wireless electricity everywhere and things don't run out of juice, this is a winner for me. Put your feet in the shoes and hit a button? Yes please. Laces are annoying and rubbish I think. It would need some kind of auto-release catch incase the shoes screwed up. Assuming we still live in a disposable culuture then, people would just throw away broken trainers and get another pair. Maybe we'll be working in sweatshops at that point?
 
I think you left out one of the most important BTTFII innovations:

Mr Fusion home power generator and garbage disposal.
mr-fusion.jpg


Garbage disposal and power generator in one compact kitchen appliance? Sign me up.
:)
 
Peter R said:
What do you vote for if you want a flying car that is a Delorean?

You have to accept that they'll never make flying Deloreoans.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
SomeGuy99 said:
I really want flying cars, but would they work? To stand any chance of actually happening, the things would have to mostly pilot themselves, and you'd be restricted to the sky lanes. That makes the flying part less exciting! Less traffic jams would be great though. I think the best aspect would be using the skylanes to zip between continents, providing it was actually cheaper than planes or ferries. What about a trans-alantic crossing though? Where would the power come from? Mr Fusion? And what about rest points? Would there be a floating platform in the middle of the ocean with a place to piss and get lunch?

The father of a friend of me is developing a flying car for about 20 years now and it's in the final stage, even got a patent. Mostly needs some financing. It wouldn't be a lot larger than a small van (fits into most garages: 4m x 2.5m x 1.4m) and would be able to lift off at about 120 km/h with a top speed of about 400 km/h. No VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) in the first model but it's possible and not too expensive to do. Uses a 200 PS normal engine and has a great range with one tank of gas but only enough space for two people. It really would pilot itself via GPS, he already has got a small model which starts with the press of a button, flies to the target and lands (at least I think the model is done, I've only seen the shell so far made from some fiberglass or something). The first models would probably just be something like an air taxi for businesspeople which don't want to wait at the airport or ride a train to get to another city. Also transatlantic flights would be possible, just take a bit at 400 km/h. It's supposed to revolutionize personal transport etc. but as always the bureaucracy involved slows things down a lot... Oh and it's supposed to not be a lot more expensive than a normal good car. :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
<- I already love this Thread! ;)

EvilDragon said:
SomeGuy99 said:
Peter R said:
What do you vote for if you want a flying car that is a Delorean?

You have to accept that they'll never make flying Deloreoans.

But I want one.
+1
If a car looks good while flying, then it is a DeLorean. ^^
Well, I really want my Hoverboard in 2015, so I hope I can order one soon. :D Power laces are also nice but of course I want a DeLorean Time Machine. With Money, I could have one but sadly without flying or time traveling:
http://www.offto55.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=106

But sadly, all we have at the moment is this ugly "Moller Sky Car" and it still doesn't really fly after 40 Years in Development and Millions over Millions of Development costs. :lol:
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Is it by any chance this, the Terrafugia Transition?
Also, I'd probably go for a hoverboard... They look fun :D
 
SomeGuy99 said:
Peter R said:
What do you vote for if you want a flying car that is a Delorean?

You have to accept that they'll never make flying Deloreoans.


We already have flying lawnmowers, so why not flying DeLoreans?

http://flyingthingz.com/products/skycutter_green.html
http://www.3d-nut.com/videos/skycutter40.wmv

D.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
No it looks like this:

flyingcar.jpg


(Well this is a model obviously... :) )

The wings don't unfold or anything, they are fixed.
 
EvilDragon said:
SomeGuy99 said:
Peter R said:
What do you vote for if you want a flying car that is a Delorean?

You have to accept that they'll never make flying Deloreoans.

But I want one.

Me too. However, by the time we get flying cars, all us BTTF fans will be old and irrelevant. :(

fusion_power said:
http://www.offto55.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=106

Is that a fan recreation? Woah! The amount of detail there is amazing! I don't think they missed a thing - not even the barcode numberplate. It even has the Nike shoes and hoverboard inside! These have to be the real props... surely?!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm still checking Moller's site regularly, waiting for the damn flying car to finally become available. Not that I could afford one... :D You can now book a spot in the auction of the first 40 flying saucer type vehicles for the low sum of 500$! :ph34r:
 
Mr.Confuzed said:
@Emnasut: Now you're just dicking around.

Nope. I know it looks like a plane, but well the main use would be for flying so it should be aerodynamic :) It just can drive also (and has to up to 120 kmh for lift off) and is able to take off and land on a normal road. Here's a picture with tests in a wind tunnel:

windtunnel.png
 
Last edited by a moderator:
No that's just a low quality picture from an older presentation. :/
If you don't believe me you can look up the patent Nr. 199 19 626. IPC: B64C 39/10 (2006.01). It's from the german patent office.
 
SomeGuy99 said:
fusion_power said:
http://www.offto55.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=106

Is that a fan recreation? Woah! The amount of detail there is amazing! I don't think they missed a thing - not even the barcode numberplate. It even has the Nike shoes and hoverboard inside! These have to be the real props... surely?!
Yupp, Fan-Made. There is a small but exclussive Community that are able to build in this Quality. They even use equal parts that were also onto the Movie-Cars. :)
The New Time Machines evne have "working" electronics, so you can input your Destination time, activate the Flux Capaciator, working Plutonium Chamber Gauges, realistic Sound and so on...
Here, the Video at this site of another builder explains some things: http://www.bttfstuff.com/timemachine.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
A friend and I were talking about the self-tying shoes lately. We were remembering shoes that had velcro instead of laces, and how when we were kids, only the kids who were too dumb to tie their shoes got velcro. The conclusion was that in the future, only the kids who are too stupid for velcro will have self-tying shoes.
 
Back
Top