Cutline Speaks

From Science Fiction to Tech Reality

posted by The Cutline Team on November 12, 2008

I suppose I'm not as big of a science fiction fan as most self-described geeks, but I love when writers and filmmakers offer us visions of the future. The funny thing is, even though the worlds they create are often farcical, full of gimmicks and sight gags, they give us some serious insight into where our technological priorities are headed. Take our governor's retributive, interplanetary voyage in 1990's Total Recall - sure, the idea of a bars and cafes on Mars may seem completely fantastic today, but 2008 was the year the Phoenix lander discovered ice under the Martian soil. It seems we're actually getting closer to sending manned missions to the red planet. Or how about the scene from 2002's Minority Report where Tom Cruise's character, John Anderton, walks through the mall to be confronted with a serious of customized advertisements? As behavioral targeting and hologram technology become more sophisticated, it may not be long before video ads call us by name. Finally, who could forget the scene from Back to the Future: Part II where the 2015 version of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) receives a widescreen video call from Needles (Flea)? With Google's recent integration of video chat into Gmail, people now have more access to this technology than ever before, so maybe by the time the real 2015 rolls around, video calling will be a household standard. It seems as long as people are dreaming of the future, we'll always have technology to look forward to.

Tags for this post: tech industry