Technicolor Dreamquotes

My first out of (hopefully) many articles about whatever's crossing my mind, eyes, and ears at the moment. I'm just testing the waters of this thang, so I can assure you the next piece won't be quite as rambly :)

The Jetsons was set in 2062, a hundred years ahead of the animated sitcom's debut. Now we're only 50 years away from being able to MEET GEORGE JETSON, HIS BOY ELROY, and the whole fam. You can thank me later for firmly implanting the song in your head again.

Aaaand we still ain't got no collapsible hovercars, portable jetpacks, zipline elevators, talking dogs, or sassy robotic maids. So if we want to take away from the show as accurate predictions (or if you thought The Flintstones was a History Channel documentary), then what's the deal? We can barely get our act together on using alternative fuels, let alone hovercrafts.Yet while most of these gadgets might still be confined to the realms of science fiction, the truth is that we're not all too far off...

For my rock-dwelling readers, I'm referring to the Coachella concert with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg spitting live onstage in April. The business-as-usual gangsta party might've remained merely a focal point with hip-hop heads, had it not been for a surprise guest: a holographic Tupac Shakur, baggy jeans, bandana, Thug Life tattoo and all. I stared transfixed at my Droid, watching the living embodiment of one of Madame Tussands' wax figures. And that is a very good thing. The swagger, the intensity, the stage presence, and the dead-on staccato boomed throughout the auditorium. If I was there, I'm certain chills would be coursing down my spine as he opened with his eerie ghost story Hail Mary. And even though it was a projection, Snoop's chemistry with Pac hearkened back to their Death Row Records glory days, as they performed their seminal classic 2 Of Amerika'z Most Wanted.

Those that witnessed this spectacle have given considerable props, both Pac fans and non-fans alike, and the fact that it made headline news certainly proved that this innovation was larger than the sum of its parts. Even if we've become so desensitized by this digital age, the leaps and bounds of technology have not been lost on us.

Just less than two months ago, we were busy popping our eyes at Google's latest venture, Project Glass, which teased us with the idea of augmented-reality glasses, essentially an iPhone for our eyes. The real world equivalent of a Dragon Ball Z scouter, basically. The ability to look up GPS directions, weather readings, (video) calls, Internet browsing, all without ever having to reach into your pocket to check your smartphone again. This latest gadget from the monopolizing search engine is in its prototypical stages. But the truth is that this science fiction is very, very real, and it won't be long before it comes to light.

When we take the time to stop and smell the steel magnolias, you realize that many of the smaller nuances in our lifetime are technological leaps of faith that seem near impossible to fathom a decade before. It wasn't until Steve Jobs passed away that I stepped back to appreciate how far we had come. The very essence of a smartphone, for instance, is the culmination of the future. The ability to simply touch items to manipulate them on screen, without buttons or switches. The ability to surf the Internet on a portable device. To watch videos from anywhere, listen to our music at anytime, to visually communicate with any person in the world without skipping a beat.

These aren't million dollar pipe dreams reserved for the Trekkies and the Jetsons. It's how most of us manage to wake up in the morning, let alone function each day. It's all a breathless montage of the wonders of our age outfitted into a stunningly normal function of life. You're probably reading this on your phone right now. Could you say that 15 years ago without receiving a pitying grimace in return?

It's a beautiful thing, really. Just the little things make me make marvel. A couple of kids on the Metro one morning were watching Spongebob on their father's phone. For those of you that grew up in the era where portable TV's in buses and vans made your jaw drop, this is a pretty big deal. There used to be a time when meeting people through social networks was ostracizing. Now it's the norm for many. Athletes can be computer geeks as easily as grandmas can become gamers. We live in an era where we barely need controllers to play video games. Heck, remember when we needed wires?

We take these things for granted so easily, given how tightly wired we are to the lightning-fast cyberworld without even thinking about it. But every so often, we get jolted back outside of the Matrix long enough to breathe and take in the world from the outside in. Shortly after Gates' passing came the release of iPhone4S, sporting the immersive A.I. dubbed Siri. Voice recognition technology has been done before, but never as receptive, responsive, and dare I say...lifelike in its rapier feedback. Many iPhone owners have spent much of their time talking to Siri, unlocking the many secrets within her framework. And despite the onslaught of Skynet jokes that are honestly pretty viable with digital monopolies Google and Apple, their giant leap in robotics and computer framework cannot be ignored. Heck, simply check out Japan's track record. We'll probably see hovercars and robotic maids coming from their end soon enough (Roombas don't count).

So I guess with all the rambling, the question is where do we go from here? What are some of your speculations of where science fiction will turns to facts of life?