I love watching science fiction movies. There’s just something about futuristic technology that makes me very excited. It’s probably one of the only things that makes me consider living past the ripe age of 55. If we ever make a lightsaber (yes, I know Star Wars technically isn’t science fiction, it’s fantasy in space), I’ll live to see the day.
Sometimes science catches up with our imagination. We spend our days waiting for a certain piece of technology to arrive, only to discover that it’s already been created but no one told anyone about it. I probably couldn’t keep my mouth shut for five minutes in that situation, but apparently the world is still a place for people with more discretion than myself. Maybe that’s for the better.
Anyway, staying true to not being able to keep my mouth shut, allow me to inform you about some technology that already exists without it being publicly known.
Bionic Eye
The company Second Sight has been working on the “Argus II Retinal Prothesis System”, which essentially provides electrical stimulation of the retina to induce visual perception. In words even I can understand: it makes blind people see things.
Air Touch
Remember when Tony Stark does that thing where he flicks his hand in the air and his computer knows it’s supposed to move the screen? Taiwanese company Industrial Technology Research Institute is working on that.
Food Pills
Soylent, while mainly creating nutrition shakes, has created complete nutrition in powdered form. (Maybe not to watch the 1973 Sci-Fi thriller ‘Soylent Green’; it might discourage you from experiencing real Soylent products).
Nanotechnology
While not being used to wage cyber-war, it’s actually being used to help fight disease like MSRA and HIV.
Flying Cars
We’d been waiting on it for quite a long time, but Terrafugia among other firms, has created the Transition, which is essentially a car that can fly. No more traffic jams!
Hoverboard
It was recently on Kickstarter: you could get your own Hoverboard for the small fee of $10,000! It’s apparently based on a patented technology called Magnetic Field Architecture. Here’s hoping this can be further refined and made cheaper very soon! I’m ready to Hover!
Military Exoskeleton
This is probably the best known of all the one’s I’ve mentioned here. But let me just nerd out over a cool joke they put in the “smart suit”: it’s essentially an Iron Man suit, and it’s called the HULC. Get it? Iron Man? Hulk?
