Back to the Future Technology Compares to Today’s

By Josia Tourville, Reporter
November 4, 2015

October 21, 2015 is the date Marty Mcfly traveled to in Bob Gale’s and Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future III.

Gale and Zemeckis’ prediction of what 2015 would bring is not too off.  Time travel and a repeating cause and effect theme is what made this iconic 1980s movie so popular, and using it, they came up with their own idea of what the future holds.

The prediction of the hoverboard trend was thought of as a “long shot” back in 1989. However, technology is no doubt on its way to advancing this product as an everyday item found in everyday life.

On a side note, the movie suggests that the Chicago Cubs would win the world series. This season the Cubs did make it to the play-offs, but didn’t go as far as the World Series.

This prop was used as the hoverboard in “Back to the Future II.” Photo By pop culture geek from Los Angeles, CA, USA [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Today, Hendo has given us a hoverboard, which professional skater Tony Hawk has promoted on his YouTube channel. This board resembles the one shown in Back to the Future III; however, it shows only similarities in how it works, not physically. Unlike the pink Back to the Future hoverboard, the Hendo board is more of a square shaped board that has pads for footing placement. When turned on, it doesn’t touch the ground at all, and it moves when pedaling on the ground by foot.

Facetime is an app that can be used for video chatting. Photo by: By Apple Inc. (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Another reality is video conferencing. This is seen in the movie when Marty has a fight with his boss and gets fired talking to his boss in his own living room. Facetime is a video chatting feature that most people have access to on their own phones. This is commonly used by people when they need to show something while talking to someone and are too far away to meet them in person. In the business world, companies can commute with other industries without traveling to different regions.

 

This is the wearable smart technology brought to the world by Google. Photo by: By Tim.Reckmann (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The headsets worn at the dinner table are very much like the new Google Glass, which are smart glasses that can be worn casually. This device can be used to keep track of social media and phone calls from multiple places. Although this does not get much recognition, it is definitely a notable piece of technology.
Considering Back to the Future II was made for the entertainment purposes only, all the predictions made by Gale and Zemeckis are remarkably intelligent.