Science Fiction or Science Fact?

This post is part of the Into Geek Carnival which you can join in with here.

As the theme is technology, I am going to look at various things that sci-fi tells us will happen and decided whether they ever will.

The Thing: Flying Cars (possibly which drive themselves)

Going to happen?: Unlikely, in the proper sci-fi form anyway. The possible methods to cause flight would all require the vehicle to be much bigger than a typical road car. However there are a number of legal road vehicles that do actually have the ability to fly. Here’s a few examples:

As you can see, none of those really look like normal cars. And as for the driving themselves? Well that’s quite likely. Planes have used autopilot systems for years. For most of a flight on a commercial plane it is not being flown manually. Cars have been produced which can drive by themselves on the road but aren’t widely available yet. However, many high-end cars now park themselves so the technology is already being used.

The Thing: Everything in the home being run by a single computer

Going to happen?: Probably! If you think about it most of the appliances in your home have some sort of computer to work them and so connecting them all is certainly possible. Microsoft’s house of the future has demonstrated the possibilities of such a thing. From a main screen you could turn all the lights on and off and control lots of other things in the house. Most things were connected using cloud technology. Here’s a few incredible images:

For more about this house I recommend this website.

The Thing: Hoverboards

Going to happen?: Maybe. At the moment the only real way of even attempting to do this is using a leafblower but these home-made creations are hardly like the ones in Back to the Future. However, an invention called the Mag Surf does a better job.

Built by researchers in France, the Mag Surf uses superconducter magnetic levitation. Super-cold liquid nitrogen turns a special metal material on the bottom of the board into a superconductor, which powerfully repels the magnetic field in the track and pins the board to the edge of the field. The effect is like an invisible rail. It’s not exactly powerful though and requires their to be metal under the track. It only hovers 3cm above the ground and has a maximum weight limit of around 100kg. But it’s a start. Here’s a video because I know you want to see this in action!

The Thing: Time Machine

Going to happen?: Probably not. Scientists are in debate whether it’s even possible. The only way you might be able to travel in time is by going through a wormhole but this isn’t certain. Humans haven't even ever discovered one yet so they might not even exist. Even if they did humans would have to travel for an incredibly long time to get there. But this is probably a good thing as messing with time could have all sorts of negative effects on the universe.

The Thing: Teleportation

Going to happen?: Maybe. Scientists have successfully teleported some atoms, though the way of doing it is complicated. They technically didn’t transport the atoms but transferred their properties to other atoms, essentially making these atoms the same as the original atom. However, doing it with anything more than a few atoms is a long way off. For one thing it would be incredibly complex to ensure that the original was completely changed and to keep the person alive. There’s also the memory issue. Someone worked out it would take 10⁴⁵ bits to perfectly recreate an average adult down to the quantum level of a computer. Today a terrabyte can store up to 10¹² bits. Therefore you would need an enormous computer, with more memory than has ever been created, just to recreate one person!

Well I hope you enjoyed that, it certainly got my mind thinking. Please go and join in with the Into Geek Carnival, it would make my day. Over and out!