How Close Are We To The 2015 Of Back To The Future?

October 21st, 2015: The day The Future officially begins.

The time has finally come - we are officially living in the future (so long as you set your calendar by excellent 80s movies, and why wouldn't you?) Back To The Future Part II made some pretty bold claims as to what the world would look like on the 21st October, 2015. This is usually the kiss of death that will open anyone up to be mercilessly mocked when the real future finally rolls around and it looks nothing like the predictions. So how does the classic sequel measure up? Actually, not all that badly. Hopefully we dress a little better than was predicted and we were mercifully spared the 18 Jaws sequels (although even Jaws 2 was a bridge too far to be honest), but now that the day has finally arrived, let's take a look at how our 2015 compares to the late-80s version of events?

8. Hoverboards

The hoverboard is basically how most of Generation X and Y judge our technological advancement. It doesn€™t matter how many smartphones you throw at the Millennials, all we want is a hoverboard. The good news is that we might be about to get our wish. The Hendo Hoverboard has been making waves in the tech world since 2014 when Kickstarter backers pledged over half a million dollars to make it happen. It has apparently taken us this long to figure you that the best way to make a board hover is to fit it with opposing magnets (as opposed to faffing around with fans and superconductors as we were in the past). Obviously, this means that the ground has to also be prepared with magnets, but these are definitely boards that hover so it counts. If you€™re willing to settle for style over substance, then you could always fill your hoverboard shaped hole with the segway-style wheeled hoverboards/scooters/whatever that are currently proving a the €œnext big thing€ with the early adopters (whether they€™ll go the same way as Second Life and Kony 2012 remains to be seen).
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