You Call This the Future?: The Greatest Inventions Sci-Fi Imagined and Science Promised - Softcover

Sagan, Nick; Frary, Mark; Walker, Andy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1556526857 ISBN 13: 9781556526855

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 2008

Synopsis

Examining the 50 coolest, most stylish, and most popular futuristic inventions, this handbook peers through the lens of today's science, looking at which ones have become reality and how they work, and which are still in the imagined future--will we ever get to ride our jetpacks? From prototype to realization, the technological evolution of each invention--such as the Star Trek communicator, which has become today's cell phone; the robot pets of Dr. Who;Vanilla Sky's cryonics; and even Sleeper's orgasmatron--is charted in this veritable history of the future.

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

YOU CALL THIS THE FUTURE?

THE GREATEST INVENTIONS SCI-FI IMAGINED AND SCIENCE PROMISEDBy NICK SAGAN MARK FRARY ANDY WALKER

CHICAGO REVIEW PRESS

Copyright © 2007 Elwin Street Limited
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-55652-685-5

Contents

INTRODUCTION..................................................61.00 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION..............................801:01 Jetpack................................................1001:02 Flying car.............................................1401:03 Teleportation and transporters.........................1801:04 Warp drives and antimatter engines.....................2001:05 Spaceships and shuttles................................2201:06 Space tourism..........................................2401:07 Terraforming...........................................2201:08 Maglev trains..........................................3001:09 Time travel............................................3401:10 Worm holes.............................................362.00 COMPUTERS, CYBORGS, AND ROBOTS.........................3802:01 Artificial intelligence................................4002:02 Robot pets.............................................4402:03 Humanoids and artificial people........................4602:04 Entertainment systems..................................4802:05 AI marketing...........................................5002:06 Pocket computers.......................................5202:07 Robot helper...........................................5402:08 Wetware and neurochips.................................5802:09 Cybernetics............................................6002:10 Cyborgs................................................643.00 COMMUNICATIONS.........................................6803:01 Communicators and cell phones..........................7003:02 Videophones............................................7203:03 Eyephones..............................................7403:04 Electronic books and paper.............................7803:05 Language translators...................................8003:06 Hypnopedia.............................................8203:07 Virtual conferencing...................................8403:08 Watch gadgets..........................................8603:09 Wireless access points.................................9003:10 Future Internet........................................944.00 WEAPONS AND SECURITY...................................9804:01 Retinal scanning.......................................10004:02 Biochips and artificial implants.......................10204:03 Probes and sensors.....................................10604:04 Invisibility and cloaking..............................10904:05 Force fields and shields...............................11304:06 Hacking and malware....................................11604:07 Spy cams and surveillance..............................11804:08 Tracking devices.......................................12104:09 Biological and chemical warfare........................12404:10 Future weapons.........................................1265.00 LIFE, HEALTH, AND SEX..................................12805:01 Telemedicine...........................................13005:02 Bionic body parts......................................13205:03 Sick bay...............................................13505:04 Cloning................................................13805:05 Mind control...........................................14205:06 Genetic engineering....................................14505:07 Virtual sex and future sex toys........................14805:08 Future clothing........................................15005:09 Future food............................................15205:10 Cryonics...............................................155INDEX.........................................................158

Chapter One

TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION

"Where do you want to go today?" may have been a popular advertising slogan in the 1990s, but the year 2000 saw IBM summing up the frustrations of millions with a commercial that asked, "Where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars. I don't see any flying cars. Why?"

It's an excellent question. Where are the jetpacks, the flying cars, the transporters, and all the other advances that were meant to save us from the drudgery of our daily commute? Trapped in a line of slow-moving traffic, how can we not dream of alternatives? And how many man hours are lost in transit? How much extra pollution does road congestion kick up into the air we breathe?

While the potential for better means of travel has been evident for decades, jetpacks and flying cars symbolize the gap between our imagination and our ability to impose that imagination upon our world. And what about journeying beyond our world? Will our children and grandchildren vacation on other planets? Are the stars in fact our destination? And what about time travel?

So, let's put aside "Where do you want to go today?" and instead take a good look at "How are you going to get there?"

01:01

JETPACK

Imagine strapping on a piece of jet-powered luggage and, with the twitch of a joystick, being able to fly anywhere you like. No wonder the jetpack is one of the most popular icons of sci-fi: besides the joyriding thrill of traveling on demand in three dimensions, its practical implications would change cities into urban skyscapes whose inhabitants could conduct their lives off the ground, in a tier-to-tier existence unbounded by gravity.

SCIENTIFIC HISTORY

Military organizations around the world have long seen the potential of the jetpack: the U.S. military funded research by an engineer named Wendell Bell in the 1940s, and the Germans developed basic jetpack technology during World War II by strapping two pulse jet tubes of low thrust onto the body of a pilot. This device, known as the Himmelstrmer, was intended for use by German pioneers to cross minefields and bridgeless waters.

More recently, a company called Trek Aerospace has begun developing their own version with military and industrial uses in mind. However, the past 60 or 70 years haven't seen any substantial improvements in performance. Bell's original "rocket belt" used hydrogen peroxide gas as fuel, and could propel its pilot into the air for about 20 seconds. By the 1960s he had only increased flight time by 10 seconds.

The limited fuel capacity of a jetpack remains a barrier to its development even today. Millennium Jet's 2000 SoloTrek XFV-powered by a dual rotor, making it more of a personal helicopter than a jetpack-can hover only a few feet off the ground and suffered several accidents in testing. Trek Aerospace's Springtail EFV-4B uses a similar dual-rotor design that has improved stability and control, but can fly for no more than 30 seconds. Still, the potential uses of the jetpack-personal and commercial as well as military and industrial-encourage scientists to continue to work toward a viable prototype.

REALITY

The major problem with the jetpack is its limited flight time. All of the examples mentioned here use hydrogen peroxide as a propellant. When combined with a silver catalyst, hydrogen peroxide decomposes into a mixture of superheated steam and oxygen. The hot steam and gas mixture is led into one or more jet nozzles to produce a reaction mass, creating the acceleration that enables the jetpack to take off.

The great advantage of hydrogen peroxide is that, while the exhaust is very hot, it is still much cooler than that produced by combustion fuels, reducing the risk of fire or injury. However, the problem with hydrogen peroxide is that it's simply not possible to carry enough fuel to fly for more than 30 seconds, with a maximum range of 800 feet (244 meters).

Add to this the potential mayhem of hundreds of jetpack-borne people hurtling through the skies at any one time, and it's easy to see why jetpacks are for the moment relegated to spectator events and won't be available at your local store any time soon.

The introduction of the jetpack outside fiction was the result of two high-profile flights, the first in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, and the second at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Thunderball actually involved two jetpacks. One was a nonfunctional prop worn by Sean Connery (playing Bond), while the second was a genuine Bell Rocket Belt. Bell company pilots Bill Suitor and Gordon Yaeger performed the actual flying scenes.

The second famous appearance of the jetpack in public was at the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles summer Olympic Games in 1984. Bill Suitor flew above the heads of spectators, many of whom instinctively covered their heads with their hands. The flight was seen by 100,000 spectators at the ceremony, and watched on an estimated 2.5 billion televisions around the world.

The future of the jetpack looks bright. NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are working on a new air-traffic control system that will eliminate the need for control towers and ground-based radar systems at small airports, so greater use of personal aircraft should be possible in the coming decades. But perhaps the most promising future for the jetpack lies in a powerpack that doesn't rely on chemical combustion. In 2006, UK-based scientist Roger Shawyer reported the development of a tiny engine with no moving parts that generates thrust without emitting exhaust. This thrust comes from trapped microwaves bouncing back and forth along the length of a hollow tube with closed ends. The tapered nature of the tube allows the bouncing microwaves to exert more pressure at one end than the other, creating thrust. Shawyer hopes his "emdrive," as he calls it, will first be used by an aerospace company to power a spacecraft. Meanwhile, he is working on scaling the emdrive for use on Earth, in hovering cars and wingless aircraft. Perhaps, even, for jetpacks.

SIGHTINGS IN SCI-FI

Buck Rogers first popularized the jetpack in his 1920s' comic strip. In the 1930s Rocketeer comics and the subsequent 1991 film, the plot is all about the jetpack-with good guys and bad guys fighting to get their hands on the prototype.

In the 1960s, the animated Jonny Quest featured a jetpack-clad hero. And in Japan, Astro Boy showed the popularity of the jetpack across the globe.

James Bond ignited a new flurry of interest in the jetpack by using one in the film Thunderball (1965); as the tuxedo-clad spy straps himself in, he memorably quips, "No well-dressed man should be without one."

In Return of the Jedi (1983), bounty hunter Boba Fett's jetpack works against him as Han Solo accidentally activates it, propelling Fett into the waiting maw of the monster Sarlacc.

Most recently, in Steven Spielberg's 2002 film Minority Report, the crime-prevention units of the Precrime Department use jetpacks as standard means of transportation.

TECH SPEC: BELL JETPACK DESIGN

Modern jetpacks remain close to Bell's 1940s' design. Two canisters mounted on the pilot's back are filled with purified hydrogen peroxide. The pilot's controls allow pressurized nitrogen to push the propellant into a chamber, where it makes contact with a silver or copper catalyst.

Hydrogen peroxide ([H.sub.2][O.sub.2]) decomposes naturally to form water ([H.sub.2]O) and oxygen ([O.sub.2]) in an exothermic (heat-producing) reaction.

Introducing a catalyst like silver or copper speeds the reaction up, resulting in superheated steam (water vapor) and oxygen at a temperature of about 1370F (743C).

This gas mixture creates 300 pounds (140 kilograms) of thrust as it blasts out of the nozzles at the base of the jetpack. The pilot controls the direction of the exhaust to steer, and regulates the flow of exhaust to climb or descend.

01:02

FLYING CAR

A vehicle that travels both on land and in the air means the choice is yours-drive to the store for milk, or take off from your driveway and onto an automated skyway. The ability to commute in three dimensions at jet speeds would allow humans to live much further away from cities, reducing urban densities and improving land use.

SCIENTIFIC HISTORY

More than 70 flying car patents have been filed with the U.S. Patent Office since the beginning of the 20th century, but none has been mass-produced and only a handful have ever been built. Even fewer have flown and only two-the Airphibian and the Aerocar-have been certified as both road- and air-worthy.

Early flying car designs included the Curtiss Autoplane, which achieved a few short hops in 1917, and the 1937 Aerobile, made of many standard Studebaker automobile parts, which had some success but was shelved in 1957. Then there was the saucer-shaped Avrocar, a "flying jeep" designed by the Canadian and British military to carry troops, which was abandoned in 1961.

The first prototype to be approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration was the Airphibian, designed by Robert Fulton Jr in the 1940s. The hybrid could fly at air speeds of up to 110 miles per hour (177 kilometers per hour) and travel at half that speed on the ground. Its builders achieved more than 6,000 car-to-plane conversions. However, the most successful design to date has been the Aerocar, a fixed-wing plane-car hybrid. When in car mode, the wings and tail section can be removed and towed. In the air, the Aerocar has a range of 500 miles (800 kilometers) and a cruising speed of 135 miles per hour (217 kilometers per hour). It first flew in 1949, but a business deal to mass-produce the car went sour in the 1960s, killing any hope of commercialization.

REALITY

There are several promising flying car projects in development today. The Moller M400 Skycar is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) craft that inventor Paul Moller says will be available to buy in the 2000s in limited quantities. More than 100 people have paid a $25,000 deposit for access to the first units, priced at $500,000.

Moller's company has a(so started to produce the M200G, a small flying saucer designed to take off and land vertically and be capable of carrying two passengers. The M200G is designed as a low attitude all-terrain vehicle. It cruises at 10 feet above the ground and can speed over difficult terrain such as swampland or rocky stream beds at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour). Moller will initially build six, at a selling price of about $90,000 each.

SIGHTINGS IN SCI-FI

The flying car has become a staple in science fiction, ever since George Jetson's Spacion Wagon in the 1960s.

Flying cars have also played a part in Star Wars (1977), Blade Runner (1982), The Fifth Element (1997), and The Matrix (1999).

In Back to the Future Part II (1989), the DeLorean undergoes "hover conversion" on trip to the year 2015, rendering it air-worthy.

TECH SPEC: MOLLER SKYCAR

The most likely design for flying cars is a configuration called a VTOL, or vertical take off and landing, aircraft.

One example, the Skycar, is equipped with eight bucket-sized engines, two in each lifting pod. Each can pivot 45 degrees, and shutters inside the pod can pivot an additional 45 degrees to direct air flow so that the vehicle can switch from a vertical takeoff configuration to forward flight.

There are two parachutes that deploy if the aircraft suffers a serious problem.

01:03

TELEPORTATION AND TRANSPORTERS

Transporters that can get you, from place to place without having to pass through the intervening space have fascinated scientists and sci-fi writers for decades. Imagine: no more traffic jams, commuting, or transcontinental flights-and an easy way to extricate yourself from awkward social events!

SCIENTIFIC HISTORY

Scientists have had some success in teleportation, but are a long way from being able to transport anything Larger than an atom, let atone a human. The first (qualified) success came in 1993, when a research team at IBM led by Charles Bennet confirmed that quantum teleportation is possible, but only if the original object or person is destroyed. This problem has not yet been resolved. In 2004, scientists managed to teleport the quantum states of atoms, but the original atom was irreparably affected in the process. However, scientists working on teleporting photons (particles of light) have had more positive results. In 2002, researchers at the Australian National University successfully teleported photons from a laser beam without affecting the original particle.

REALITY

Scientists have found a way to teleport the properties of both photons and atoms using a quantum mechanics phenomenon called "quantum entanglement." Two atoms, A and B, are entangled. They then separate. A then entangles with a third atom, C, inheriting all of its properties but destroying it in the process. B continues on its way and entangles with a fourth atom, D, which then inherits the exact properties of C. While atom C is destroyed, atom D becomes an exact replica, even though no contact has been made between C and D. The problem is that scientists have so far succeeded only in transmitting the properties of photons and atoms, and the photon or atom being teleported is destroyed in the process.

Even if this process could be perfected, applying it to larger objects brings its own problems. The human body contains something like ten octillion ([10.sup.28]) atoms. A massive quantity of data (estimated at [10.sup.22] GB) would have to be transmitted, stored, and interpreted to reconstruct a human body after teleportation.

SIGHTINGS IN SCI-FI

The word teleportation was first coined by American writer Charles Fort in his 1931 book Lo!, and since then the transporter has been ubiquitous in sci-fi under a variety of names, including the Vibra-Transmitter, Displacement Booths, or Stepping Discs.

The scientist in the 1958 film The Fly (remade in 1986 and 2006) experiments with teleportation, but accidentally includes a fly in his transportation with horrific consequences.

Luckily for the characters of Star Trek, their transporter was a lot less risky. More recently, the 1994 film and subsequent TV series Stargate (with spinoffs like Stargate Atlantis) is based entirely on the premise of traveling to distant worlds through teleportation.

However, bear in mind Douglas Adams's description of teleportation in his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series: "not quite as fun as a good solid kick to the head."

TECH SPEC: QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT

While teleporting a person or inanimate object is currently impossible, the possibilities of quantum entanglement are being explored by scientists.

In 2004, two teams of scientists, one in the U.S. and one in Austria, teleported the quantum states of atoms and photons.

If a functional teleporter were invented, the person or object being transported wouldn't be physically moved from one place to another. The process would work more like a computer scanner. An original would be scanned to record the precise quantum state of every particle in its body. This data would be transmitted to the teleporter's destination where each particle would be reconstructed in the exact same state to re-form the teleported body.

The next part of teleportation technology is the hard part. The original would be destroyed. If that's a ham sandwich, that's one thing. If it's your mom who's cloned and destroyed that might be a little harder to accept. And is the exact copy at the other end still your mom or is it a done? Scientists may one day make teleportation possible, but the philosophers will have to figure out if it's an acceptable practice.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from YOU CALL THIS THE FUTURE?by NICK SAGAN MARK FRARY ANDY WALKER Copyright © 2007 by Elwin Street Limited. Excerpted by permission.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1556526857
• ISBN 13: 9781556526855
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160