Nerd Alert: It’s November 2019 – Where’s My Flying Car?
It's November 2019. And I've been lied to.
One of my favorite movies, which came out in June of 1982, painted a picture of a 2019 world where robots were so sophisticated, one would need a lie detector to tell them from humans. And even that wouldn't be foolproof. And I was told there would be flying cars.
The movie? Blade Runner. Which is set in November 2019, in Los Angeles.
What else did Blade Runner promise? According to the BBC, they actually got a lot right in the movie.
For example: the video phone calls seen in the movie are a reality. We've had Skype since 2003.
Virtual assistants were seen in the movie asking for ID and helping with office work. Unheard of in 1982, they're everywhere now with Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant.
What did the movie get wrong? Well, first - the flying cars. We're getting close, but I arrived home today in my Ford F-150 - rubber on the road the whole way.
The movie shows devices that can scan Polaroid photos for clues, showing the subjects in the photos in 3-D. But the photos shown in the movie are physical, paper photos. Nobody in 1982 could've predicted Instagram. Or it's biggest stars - the Kardashians.
Unless the Kardashians are all robots....hmmm.