Where we’re going, we don’t need roads. Except we do. But flying cars do exist, such as the Terrafugia and the AeroMobil, aircraft-car hybrids that can fly, and then fold in their wings and drive around. There’s also the Florida-based Maverick, which earned the dubious distinction of being the first flying car to crash after it slammed into some trees near a school in British Columbia. None of those have the sleek design of the DeLorean, so if you have your heart set on that look, you’ll have to settle for one of the awesome replicas, including the one below built by Californian Matthew Riese. Where he’s going, he legally can’t use roads, so I guess this is the next best thing.
Watching the car skim the water brings up the number one invention people hoped would exist by 2015: hoverboards. I’m happy to report that hoverboards are reality—just ask Tony Hawk, who recently demoed the Hendo Hover. It only gets about an inch off the ground, so it doesn’t get the dramatic air Marty McFly does, but it fits the bill. The design incorporates physicist Heinrich Lenz’s law of electrodynamics by generating opposing electrical currents that push the hoverboard off the ground.
I’m sure people will also be thrilled to know that in 2015, they’ll be able to buy Marty’s power-lacing Nike high tops. In 2011, Nike made 1,500 pairs and auctioned them on Ebay, making $6 million for Parkinson’s research. But rather than forking over thousands of dollars to snag one of these, sneaker connoisseurs can get a pair this year. Nike hasn’t released the details, but the price will likely be a bit closer to the $200-$300 Air Mags they made in 2013.
Remember the dehydrated Pizza Hut pie the future McFlys have for dinner? It’s encased in Mylar and needs only a two-second rehydration. It’s not exactly the same, but the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center has been developing MRE (meals ready to eat) pizza for a while now, and believe they’ve developed a pizza that can remain edible for three years, so long as the package stays sealed. The biggest challenge has been figuring out how to keep the sauce from making the dough soggy, but they’ve got humectants, iron filings, and extra acidity that seem to do the trick.
When the McFlys are enjoying that pizza dinner, Marty’s future kids are both wearing virtual reality goggles that look more like Oculus Rift headsets but seem to function more like Google Glass, since his daughter is talking to her friend via the device. This is just one example of the seemingly ubiquitous wearable technology available today, and one aspect the movie got right. The movie also features some holographic billboards, which when coupled with virtual reality technologies sounds a lot like Magic Leap, a company that pushes virtual reality to the next step, which it calls “cinematic reality.” It’s not just holograms, but 3-D, high-resolution objects that users can actually manipulate.
So while fax machines and phone booths have been phased out (or in some cases, upgraded), we’re not too far from some of the futuristic visions of the movie. If the Cubs win the World Series this year, we’ll know we’ve truly arrived at the incredible.
