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5 Science fiction technologies that are actually going to be released.

Future is going to be released

By AddictiveWritingsPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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5 Science fiction technologies that are actually going to be released.
Photo by Fábio Lucas on Unsplash

1. Hoverboard

On a skateboard, Marty McFly delivers himself a wild chase through the city. But the board has no wheels, it glides weightlessly through the air: In the second part of the science fiction classic “Back to the Future” from the 1980s, young Michael J. Fox is catapulted by a time machine into the year 2015, where the hoverboard helps him escape. However, the battery-powered boards with two wheels, which are sold under this name today, have little to do with the original.

Nevertheless, two devices are much closer to the original: In 2015, German researchers, together with a Japanese car manufacturer, presented for advertising purposes a floating board on which a professional skater rushed through a course. Superconductors generate a strong magnetic field inside the device. Magnetic rails embedded in the floor finally ensure that the board floats a few centimeters in the air due to the magnetic repulsion.

Even more spectacular is the flyboard of French jet ski racer Franky Zapata. The pilot’s feet are attached to the board as on a snowboard, and with the help of engines, it is possible to fly through the air at speeds of up to 140 kilometers per hour. Whether the two techniques will ever be considered for a wider audience remains questionable.

2. Artificial organs

The doorbell rings: the installments for the artificial organ have not been paid. The debtor is slit open, the organ is removed. In the science-fiction dystopia “RepoMen” people can have new and life-prolonging organs implanted. For many, this is only possible on credit. However, those who do not pay get a visit from a RepoMan who does not hesitate.

One can only hope that this scenario will never become a reality. However, we are not so far away from artificial organs: At the beginning of August 2019, for example, the trade journal “Science” reported on a functioning heart valve, ventricle, and other parts of the human heart from the 3D printer. Just a few months earlier, biotechnologists had succeeded in using the technology to create soft blood vessels and airways like those in a lung. The structures were able to enrich the blood with oxygen. So it looks as if artificial, functional organs will soon be able to be printed and then implanted. Due to the worldwide shortage of organs, this would be a welcome development.

3. Mindreading

The device, which the two students and passionate inventors are building at home, has a lot to offer: it can read thoughts. Soon, an unscrupulous governmental organization takes an interest — and soon it’s a matter of life and death. Researchers try to develop technology from the film “Listening” in various ways. For example, Facebook-funded scientists are designing a “speech decoder” that uses brain signal analysis to understand what people want to say or write. The scientists placed small electrodes directly on the brains of volunteers who had to undergo brain surgery anyway. The system achieved a hit rate of more than 60 percent in the first simple question-answer dialogues, with nine-question or 24 answer options to choose from.

The hit rate was allegedly over 60 percent. Another device, AlterEgo, can also make imaginary words audible. It takes advantage of the fact that our brain sends signals to the vocal cords, throat, and tongue even when we are only talking to ourselves in silence. Besides, there are many other ways in which we can read certain information from the brain waves, such as movement intentions or simply “yes” or “no”. Such techniques are used, for example, to try to communicate with completely paralyzed people.

4. Cold sleep

The spaceship Nostromo is on its long way back to Earth. The entire crew is in cold sleep before being awakened by a sudden distress call in the middle of space. In the science fiction film “Alien” and several other films and books, freezing human bodies and waking them up again in the future is used to realize decades of journeys in space.

Experts call this conservation of living beings and organs cryonics. With the means available today, however, it still causes serious damage to the frozen living beings. Nevertheless, many people are already hoping for a life after the cold: the first cryopreservation of a human being took place more than 50 years ago, and several hundred have since followed this example.

It is not completely unlikely that human cryonics will be successful at some point in the future: Individual cells have been successfully cryopreserved for many decades, and even frozen human embryos and simple animals such as threadworms can be brought back to life. In humans, however, there are problems: The cooling of the body must be done without the formation of damaging ice crystals. For this purpose, body fluids are replaced by antifreeze. This is possible for simple structures, but not for complex ones so far. Besides, the antifreeze may lead to irreversible organ damage — and how to remove it is still unclear.

5. Flying cars

In the year 2263 there is a hustle and bustle in the canyons of houses — but not on the ground, but in the air. For Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich, it is, therefore, time and again “hold on” when they are forced to make daring evasive maneuvers. In the film “The Fifth Element”, city traffic has completely shifted from the road into the air.

A flying car, however, is an extremely popular vision of the future, both as a hybrid — i.e. capable of driving and flying — and simply as a flying vehicle. In 2019, science fiction will no longer be the latter: several companies have already constructed flying prototypes that will soon carry the first passengers by air to their destinations.

In cities such as Los Angeles, Dubai, and Singapore, test operations are scheduled to start as early as 2020. Commercial operations will probably follow a few years later. Air taxis — as they are commonly known — will then hover above the roofs of the metropolises, relieving congested streets. In the initial phase, a pilot will probably still be on board, but in the long term, the air taxis will fly autonomously. However, these will not be flying companions, which, as in the “fifth element”, will appear as futuristic, flying cars, but almost exclusively large drones with passenger capsules.

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About the Creator

AddictiveWritings

I’m a young creative writer and artist from Germany who has a fable for anything strange or odd.^^

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