Where’s My Jetpack?

January 1, 2010

Where’s My Jetpack – A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived
Daniel H Wilson
2007, 182 pages

Remember watching Back To The Future Part II and loved the hover-board and all the awesome tech that was supposed to be available by 2015? Remember arriving last night into the wondrous future that is this shiny new decade and realizing that we don’t have flying cars, personal robot maids, or jetpacks? I was a little disappointed myself. Daniel Wilson’s book is about the bright and shiny future that never arrived.

In a series of short 2-5 page articles, Wilson examines some of science fiction’s best technologies – jetpacks, flying cars, teleportation, underwater hotels, robot maids, cryogenics, etc – and tells us of their current research status, how we got their, and their potential for real-life application. The articles are snappy, funny, and at the same time informative. For instance, did you know that smell-o-vision actually existed and people just didn’t like it? That makes me upset. I want smell-o-vision, and food pills, and so on.

I got this book from Alan for Christmas, and may I say, it is so pretty and shiny. The cover has reflective silver and blue writing, the pages are gilded blue, and there are wonderful full-page blue, white and gray infographic-style illustrations accompanying each article. It is a really well put together book. The writing is snappy, engaging and witty. My only criticism is that is often seems like a well put together Wikipedia article. In fact, that smell-o-vision link I posted above? It gives identical information that the book gives. I don’t think there’s anything in this book you couldn’t find on WIkipedia. I think the real benefit of this book is it gives a fun, concise overview of cool new technologies that could have been if only our priorities or laws of physics were slightly different. Also, I don’t have an iPhone, so Wikipedia isn’t as portable as books are ^{[citation needed]}.

This is the first book I’ve finished reading in 2010 and overall, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to reading more awesome books in the year to come. I’m going to try and keep track of them more accurately this year than I did last year.

Slightly off topic, but also relevant: The Future Soon by Johnathan Coulton is an awesome song. Go listen to it right now, I’ll wait. You can thank me later.

Shannon Patterson, filed under Pop Culture, Reviews | No Comments