Movie "tech" that will NOT become reality

Every day. It’s position on my desk blocks part of my view of my classroom. I’d prefer to be able to see through it so I don’t have to keep craning my neck to see the kids while I’m entering grades.

The hand-waving looks good to convey the concept in a movie, but actual implementation of the idea will be done at fingertip scale. We’re already seeing early implementations of it on smartphones and tablet computers. “Squeeze to zoom” and “flick to scroll” are becoming habitual responses for a significant user base. Mouse gestures are the #1 feature that keeps me using my current web browser. A multi-finger touch & gesture input system could unquestionably become a major market presence if executed well.

In the same way that you never see a modern day graphic designer without a stylus input device, I can fully believe that no well-equipped data sifting lab like in Minority Report would be without its gesture input. A slight motion of certain fingers unquestionably beats manipulating a cursor towards a distant icon.

Plus it would be awesome for RTS games :smiley:

I understand that teleportation of animate objects is basically impossible. Maybe for inanimate objects like rocks or boxes, but stuff that moves is apparently impossible.

At the atomic level everything moves.

Light sabers. If you’ve got lasers, there’s no point.

Elegance.

(non-joke answer - blasters don’t defend against other blasters very well. Lightsabers do.)

Lasers are clumsy and random…

Flying cars are never going to happen.

Real “blasters” will travel at the speed of light. By the time you can even theoretically be aware of the shot, it’s arrived. A big shield, or armor (that actually works, as opposed to the storm trooper useless clumsy uniforms) would be a better defense.

Or, more to the point, they already happened, a century ago. They’re just not as convenient as people think they ought to be.

I won’t get deep in the weeds on this for fear of looking like an idiot, but I think inanimate stuff ‘moves’ in a more predicatable (and transportational) manner than animate stuff.

I think swift interplanetary travel is also so far into the future as to be practically impossible.

Cloaking devices.

But if you combine both technologies, do you only need enough room to wave your hands like you just don’t care?

I disagree, I think enhance could be a reality – but for the wrong reasons. As higher resolution cameras get easier and easier to make (and computer storage gets better), it will store the information at a finer grain. Since that information is stored, zooming in on an area will show that information.

Now crazy stuff like “turn around the corner” or “edit out that person to see behind him” will never happen unless we get REALLY creative with 3D security camera technology.

Portkeys.

not a Star Wars geek but what was the point of light sabers, whether we can make them or not? Wouldn’t guns kill the bad guys faster?

Only if you Shoot First

“Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.” :smiley:

Another vote for flying cars/ hoverboards. Either you’d need true antigravity, or if you used magnetic levitation you’d need magnets and/or superconductors built into all the streets and sidewalks. And even if you have that, how do you get your hovercar to slide only forward, and only when you want it to? How do you go up a steep hill?

The Mr. Fusion, also known as privately-owned and operated nuclear power plants.

How 'bout this? :cool:

uncrop

I had a serious problem with Minority Report’s UI. It may have looked cool, but there’s is no freaking way I want to stand up in front of an eight foot piece of glass all day, making 2-3 foot gestures with my arms to read a goddamn word document or spreadsheet or whatever. I’m quite happy with wiggling a mouse. Not there aren’t better ideas to be found with UI interaction paradigms, but what we saw in that movie was not one, and I was quite :dubious: watching it. Keep looking.