The Retroskeptic: Back to Back to the Future

Originally published August 24, 2015

As perhaps you have heard, 2015 is a notable year for pop-culture enthusiasts: we have finally arrived at the future depicted in Back to the Future (specifically, Part II). If you’re one of the seven people unfamiliar with the movie franchise, you might want to get up to speed elsewhere (specifically 88 MPH—you’ll understand later).

Even at The Technoskeptic we like to have a little fun, and there are not too many things more fun than looking back smugly at the folly of poor, ignorant souls trying to predict the future. Because they always get it wrong, and we are all magically enlightened by the passage of time—even if the “they” and the “we” are the same people.

Back to the Future Part II has an interesting mix of overestimates and underestimates of technological progress. On the one hand, its 2015 has flying cars, robot dog-walkers, giant holographic projections, a mini fusion generator, and hover-boards. These items are consistent with a classic mistake of futurist fiction: things c…