With the onset of the 2nd decade in the 21st century, I can’t help but reflect on the second installment of Back to the Future, which sent Marty McFly, Doc Brown, and other characters off to the year 2015 in order to prevent Marty’s future child from getting thrown in jail, and also take an extravagant cinematic swag at predicting the future and touting mid-to-late-80s special effects.

Specifically, I can’t help but look at the level of technological advancement that was dreamed up by the writers/directors/producers/lunch staff of Back to the Future 2 and wonder if we as a society will meet those expectations in just 5 years. Yes, believe it or not, the world portrayed in the movie is just 5 years away, and so far I haven’t seen anything remotely close to futuristic flying cars, highways in the sky, robotic waiters, over-inflated prices (i.e. a can of Pepsi for $100), and of course, hover boards.

Based on where we are today technologically, I’m sad to say that we are not going to meet the expectations set by this movie. That’s not to say we haven’t made amazing advancements since the movie debuted in 1989 – proliferation of personal computers and cell phones, the Internet boom, amazing graphical capabilities, mobile media revolution – but for the most part our advancements are predominantly in the virtual world.

Within tangible, everyday life, sure we’ve got very advanced ovens, refrigerators, and washing machines and cars have unbelievable features for comfort and entertainment, but they sure as hell don’t fly! It’s depressing that the future template created by our 1988 counterparts envisioned us all driving flying cars, talking on video phones exclusively, eating absurdly micro-dehydrated foods, opening doors with finger scans and we’re all still stuck driving with tires, talking on voice-only phones, eating absurdly fatty and largely unhealthy foods, and opening doors with knobs. Knobs! What are we kidding? Knobs…..

I really think this should be a large part of President Obama’s State of the Union address tonight to help inspire innovation, challenge America to set the bar high, stop using door knobs, and live up to the expectations set in 1989 by Back to the Future, Part 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsgIzU51Mr0