History Main / IWantMyJetPack

* ''Film/ThePurge1'' shows that by 2022, America would be a crime-free utopia where every year, there would be a 12 hour period where all crimes, including murder, was legal. It's now 2022, and there is still no Purge! The NFFA would have also came into power in 2014, yet none of that happened, though it takes place in an AlternateUniverse.

* The original ''Franchise/DotHack'' series of games took place in 2010, by which point gamers were playing [=MMOs=] with VR headsets. In reality, VR gaming is still in its infancy: while great strides have been made with the UsefulNotes/OculusRift, the technology is still not available for the average gamer.

* This is actually a major theme in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''. To quote co-creator Jackson Publick:

* Creator/StephenBaxter's ''Literature/{{Titan}}'' (written in 1997) has in the year 2008 full VirtualReality simulations as commonplace, people could go to cybercafes and interact with others using interactive masks that simulated the feeling of the wind, sun, smells and even tastes.

* [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/1563.htm This]] ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' strip.

A side-effect of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale. It's very easy to imagine fantastic tools that solve a dozen of today's problems at once, or combine features of two or more unrelated present-day artifacts. It's harder to do the math on how much they would cost to build, the power input they would need to be used regularly, or the cost and potential side problems when released to the general market. Even if it could feasibly be made a reality, some ideas just aren't worth it in RealLife. As a matter of fact, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jetpack jetpacks]] have been a reality since the 1960s, and can even be bought today. The bad news is, [[http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/diy-flying/4217989 they're pretty unimpressive.]]

* Similarly, in ''ComicBook/TheTwelve'', WWII era hero Captain Wonder's first reaction upon discovering he'd been in suspended animation for over sixty years was to complain about the near-total absence of rocket cars. This is the MarvelUniverse, so rocket cars certainly ''exist'' (like the ComicBook/FantasticFour's Fantasticar, for instance), [[ReedRichardsIsUseless but nothing like that's ever been mass produced.]]

SpeculativeFiction always seems to think that the future is going to be a lot more flashy and interesting than it actually turns out to be. '''The Year 2000''' was supposed to give us lunar and undersea colonies, holographic radios, holographic movies, autodrying jackets, autolacing shoes, accurate-to-the-second weather reports, weather-control ''machines'', hoverboards, lifelike androids, {{virtual reality}}, {{flying car}}s, {{food pills}}, [[RobotBuddy robot buddies]], [[EnergyWeapon laser weapons]] and most importantly, {{Jet Pack}}s!

* Literature/TheTimeMachine: The Time Traveler travels to the distant year 802701, expecting to see all those marvelous achievements of mankind, and what does he find? A scavenger world inhabited by tiny childish people who think he fell from the sun. He later admits he didn't even properly prepare himself for the trip since he expected to find a future that could provide him with everything he would possibly need.

* Similarly, in 2006, the indie rock band Tokyo Police Club released a single titled "Citizens of Tomorrow", which tells of mankind being enslaved by robots in the far-off year of 2009.

We've gotten a lot of cool stuff since the TurnOfTheMillennium. [[labelnote:Such as...]]The Burj Khalifa skyscraper, 360-degree videos, full 3D street maps, multi-purpose handheld supercomputers ([[DataPad tablets and smartphones]]), Ultra HDTV, on-demand video streaming, GPS-equipped cars that look like [[{{Retraux}} stylized versions of their 1970 counterparts]], increasingly capable [[AutomatedAutomobiles partially-self-driving cars]], extremely efficient fast food, average packaged food, unintelligent industrial robots, Roombas, [[RetroRocket reusable orbital rockets]], relatively inexpensive DNA tests, [[TranslatorMicrobes real-time language translation]], [[MatterReplicator 3D printers]], and several varieties of firearm made with plastic. Plus of course TheInternet, which nobody back then had even thought of (although some came pretty close).[[/labelnote]] But it's mostly not the cool stuff we were promised.

A side-effect of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale. Some of the more daring concepts posed by fiction would be impractical in real life, or way too costly to research and develop, not to mention patent and regulate. It's very easy to imagine fantastic tools that solve a dozen of today's problems at once, or combine features of two or more unrelated present-day artifacts. It's harder to do the math on how much they would cost to build, the power input they would need to be used regularly, or the cost and potential side problems when released to the general market. Even if it could feasibly be made a reality, some ideas just aren't worth it in RealLife. As a matter of fact, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jetpack jetpacks]] have been a reality since the 1960s, and can even be bought today. The bad news is, [[http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/diy-flying/4217989 they're pretty unimpressive.]]

SpeculativeFiction always seems to think that the future is going to be a lot more flashy and interesting than it actually turns out to be. '''The Year 2000''' was supposed to give us lunar and undersea colonies, holographic radios, holographic movies, autodrying jackets, autolacing shoes, accurate-to-the-second weather reports, weather-control ''machines'', hoverboards, lifelike androids, virtual reality, {{flying car}}s, {{food pills}}, [[RobotBuddy robot buddies]], [[EnergyWeapon laser weapons]] and most importantly, {{Jet Pack}}s!

So this trope is for when characters complain about the lack of "sci-fi" things in the modern day, or alternatively when characters are brought from the past into the future and end up disappointed. "This is the future? Where are the food cubes? Where are all the phaser guns? Where's the flying cars? [[TitleDrop I Want My Jet Pack]]!"

Contrast with: ItsASmallNetAfterAll (in the aforementioned rant, Leo dismisses the Internet as "[[TheInternetIsForPorn A more efficient delivery system for pornography]]") TechMarchesOn. Compare with {{Zeerust}}, FailedFutureForecast and ScienceMarchesOn. [[GodwinsLaw If Nazis get them]], [[JustForPun and you don't]], it's StupidJetpackHitler [[OhCrap and that means you're fucked]].

Jet Age sci-fi is actually inherent to {{Space Opera}}s; though all RealLife space development is based on unmanned probes, all {{FTL}} [[CoolStarship Starships]] [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture must have people on them]] because [[AnthropicPrinciple it's hard to tell entertaining stories about unmanned probes]].

In more recent works, it seems to be fashionable to set the story really far in the future (as in, centuries or more), so no one will still be alive to see how inaccurate it is.

The trope is sometimes spoofed by characters brought from the past into the future, only to be disappointed by the lack of "sci-fi" things present. "This is the future? Where are the food cubes? Where are all the phaser guns? Where's my FlyingCar?!"

Actually inherent to {{Space Opera}}s; though all RealLife space development is based on unmanned probes, all {{FTL}} [[CoolStarship Starships]] [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture must have people on them]] because [[AnthropicPrinciple it's hard to tell entertaining stories about unmanned probes]].

Contrast with: ItsASmallNetAfterAll, (in the aforementioned rant, Leo dismisses the Internet as "[[TheInternetIsForPorn A more efficient delivery system for pornography]]") TechMarchesOn. Compare with {{Zeerust}}, FailedFutureForecast and ScienceMarchesOn. [[GodwinsLaw If Nazis get them]], [[JustForPun and you don't]], it's StupidJetpackHitler [[OhCrap and that means you're fucked]].

A side-effect of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale. Some of the more daring concepts posed by fiction would be impractical in real life, or way too costly to research and develop, not to mention patent and regulate. It's very easy to imagine fantastic tools that solve a dozen of today's problems at once, or combine features of two or more unrelated present-day artifacts; it's harder to do the math on how much they would cost to build, the power input they would need to be used regularly, or the cost and potential side problems when released to the general market.

This trope is named for the punch-line to Leo's rant in an episode of ''Series/TheWestWing'' on how we did not get the future we were promised.

This trope is pretty much summed up in the Music/TomSmith FilkSong [[https://web.archive.org/web/20170817202950/http://www.tomsmithonline.com/lyrics/i_want_my_flying_car.htm "I Want My Flying Car."]]

If you look, you will notice that at least the Delorean from [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII Back To The Future 2]] used VTOL, or Vertical Take Off and Landing capability. It turns out that although it's mostly feasible, that technology is sufficiently difficult to implement in RealLife that it's generally only reserved for military craft; one of the most famous of those was the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_jump_jet Harrier Jump Jet]].

The point is, that it's a lot easier for writers to come up with cool ideas, than for said ideas to be implemented in reality. Another explanation can be the fact that, as with virtual reality, although we actually can implement that technology, we just haven't found a compelling practical reason for it yet. It might be really cool, but we can do things much more easily with a boring old desktop computer, and so we do.

Actually inherent to {{Space Opera}}s; though all RealLife space development is based on unmanned probes, all {{FTL}} [[CoolStarship Starships]] [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture must have people on them]] because [[AnthropicPrinciple it's hard to tell entertaining stories about unmanned probes.]]

As a matter of fact, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jetpack jetpacks]] have been a reality since the 1960s, and can even be bought today. The bad news is, [[http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/diy-flying/4217989 they're pretty unimpressive.]]

We got a lot of cool stuff since the turn of the millenium: [[note]]The Burj Khalifa skyscraper, 360-degree videos, full 3D street maps, tiny supercomputers ([[DataPad tablets]] and smartphones), Ultra HDTV, on-demand video streaming, GPS-equipped cars that look like [[{{Retraux}} stylized versions of their 1970 counterparts]], increasingly capable [[AutomatedAutomobiles partially-self-driving cars]], average packaged food, multi-purpose handheld devices, unintelligent industrial robots, Roombas, [[RetroRocket reusable orbital rockets]], relatively inexpensive DNA tests, [[TranslatorMicrobes real-time language translation]], [[MatterReplicator 3D printers]], and several varieties of firearm made with plastic. Some of the more daring concepts posed by fiction would be impractical in real life, or way too costly to research and develop, not to mention patent and regulate. Nobody thought about the Internet (although some came pretty close), though, nor extremely efficient fast food (on the other hand, Harry Harrison has ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'' take residence in the back of, and later rob, a fully automated fast food place that produces fully cooked burgers in one minute, so maybe they did).[[/note]] but not most of the cool stuff we were promised.

The trope is sometimes spoofed by characters brought from the past into the future, only to be disappointed by the lack of "sci-fi" things present. "This is the future? Where are the food cubes? Where are all the phaser guns?" "My FlyingCar?!"

A side-effect of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale. It's very easy to imagine fantastic tools that solve a dozen of today's problems at once, or combine features of two or more unrelated present-day artifacts. It's harder to do the math on how much they would cost to build, the power input they would need to be used regularly, or the cost and potential side problems when released to the general market.

** ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': The trope is played with in an [[WhatCouldHaveBeen early draft]]. Marty reveals to 1952 Doc Brown that the time machine's nuclear power source is catalyzed with Coca-Cola. When he gets back to 1982, he finds that it's been transformed into a {{Zeerust}} pseudo-future, essentially what people in the 50s thought the 80s would be like, complete with flying cars and jet packs - Marty's dad actually complains about a monthly power bill that's over ''two dollars'' (though it's also implied that the dollar stopped inflating due to Brown's inventions -- George chews Biff out for slacking as a security guard despite being paid a whole 50 cents an hour, well above minimum wage... in 1962 dollars); as a result of the movie's events, Brown abandoned time travel research and focused on Coke-catalyzed nuclear energy, which has made him the most respected and richest scientist in ''history.'' Rock and Roll never caught on, but it's implied that Marty is about to embark on a career as a rock star, replaying various songs from his home time from memory.

* Sean McGaughey's FilkSong [[https://seanmcgaughey.bandcamp.com/track/the-future-aint-what-it-used-to-be The Future Ain't What it Used to Be]].

** ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': The trope is played with in an [[WhatCouldHaveBeen early draft]]. Marty reveals to 1952 Doc Brown that the time machine's nuclear power source is catalyzed with Coca-Cola. When he gets back to 1982, he finds that it's been transformed into a {{Zeerust}} pseudo-future, essentially what people in the 50s thought the 80s would be like, complete with flying cars and jet packs - Marty's dad actually complains about a monthly power bill that's over ''two dollars''(though it's also implied that the dollar stopped inflating due to Brown's inventions -- George chews Biff out for slacking as a security guard despite being paid a whole 50 cents an hour, well above minimum wage... in 1962 dollars); as a result of the movie's events, Brown abandoned time travel research and focused on Coke-catalyzed nuclear energy, which has made him the most respected and richest scientist in ''history.'' Rock and Roll never caught on, but it's implied that Marty is about to embark on a career as a rock star, replaying various songs from his home time from memory.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* There exist (at varying degrees of public availability and feasibility) [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack jet packs]] and other personal flying technology, bipedal robots, robot pets, flying cars, drone explorations on other planets, laser weapons, ranged stun weapons that end in "azer", and bionic limbs. Whether or not they can be produced cheaply enough for the average buyer, is another story.
** One could feasibly have a jetpack now for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack#Yves_Rossy.27s_jet_wingpack about two-hundred thousand US dollars]].
** [[http://io9.com/5492724/for-ninety-grand-you-too-can-own-a-jetpack Now you can own your own jetpack.]] It costs $90,000, but it flies well enough.
** Soon they'll be available mass-produced for $30,000 apiece, and can fly up to 50 kilometers in half an hour with a tankful, and can rise up to two kilometers. They're still AwesomeButImpractical for the most of us, though. Mind you, all that is off the point. It's not jetpacks per se that we want, nor even the thrill of flight; it's technological solutions to problems that turn the work-a-day world into Tomorrowland. The whole point of jetpacks is that no one ever has to worry about traffic jams or parking the car again, both of which would become an issue if and when jetpacks become widely available.
* The most common example after personal {{Jet Pack}}s is the FlyingCar, which is completely impractical for reasons gone into at that page (notably, most flight mechanisms we know about have very strict restrictions on their control, making it impractical to train most people to fly using them).
** Even beyond that issue, anybody who drives frequently on expressways and other high-volume traffic areas would question the wisdom of subjecting drivers who can barely handle navigating traffic in two dimensions to a third. Not to mention the dangers of having your car break down mid-air.
* [[http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/08/31/your-telephone-of-tomorrow/ This article]] from 1956 sets up an inversion.
** Ironically, we kinda took a backwards approach to this - compared to what was predicted. The idea of a video phone goes back just as far, and in fact prototypes of such a device/service have popped up numerous times - first by attempting to use normal phone lines, and then later by using the Internet with webcams, but it never really caught on, until ''after'' we already had those personal portable phones with a camera and large color screen.
* Also we have pocket-size portable phone/computer combos (called in most pulp sci-fi works "Datapads"), tons of information sent out and received via radio or television waves, a global communication network designed to point out repeating elements of said radio and television waves, a fast computing machine in every household (hardly any Sci Fi writers had any idea how computer technology would skyrocket), travel at the speed of sound or faster[[note]]including commercial supersonic travel up until the Concorde's retirement in 2003-- not that I'm bitter[[/note]], passenger cars running on oil or electricity or other products, and microwave ovens (the first commercial model was built in ''1947'') that heat food in a matter of seconds.
* Amusingly enough, this was during a period of time when everybody thought videophones would be a future part of daily life. While the technology is certainly there, they seemed to forget that people are vain, and might not want anybody to see them at certain times they would normally be talking on the phone. In addition there's always this slightly odd result of the other person not looking you in the eye - because it's still impossible to put the camera in the same location as the screen. Nowadays webcams and such ''are'' pretty much a part of daily life.
* Videophones are arguably a subversion. Long considered an icon of "the future", at first were only popular in Japan and South Korea, the only two countries in the world where the video call function of a cellphone is heavily used, in addition to being the two countries in the world with sufficiently superb data transmission infrastructure to support regular videophone use. The rise of teleconferencing software such as Skype and [=FaceTime=] that could be installed on standard laptop computers and smartphones made video calls popular worldwide. The UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, which has forced many people to work from their homes, has only accelerated the growth of the videophone market.
* [[http://paleo-future.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-may-happen-in-next-hundred-years.html These 1900's predictions]] were ''scarily'' accurate. See "Literature/WhatMayHappenInTheNextHundredYears".
* They are transcribed [[http://www.yorktownhistory.org/homepages/1900_predictions.htm here]] if you don't want to strain your eyes reading the magazine scan. Also, the entire paleo-future site where that picture is hosted is filled with examples of technologies that never came to be; in addition to the predictions already mentioned, [[http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2007/4/24/postcards-show-the-year-2000-circa-1900.html both]] [[http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2008/5/13/more-french-prints-of-the-year-2000-1900.html sets]] of post cards and [[http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2008/1/28/how-experts-think-well-live-in-2000-ad-1950.html this]] article are striking.
* [[http://www.threadless.com/product/63/Damn_Scientists This shirt]] sums up the trope pretty poignantly.
* Someday in the future we'll have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde supersonic jets]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program rockets to the moon]] ''again''.
* [[http://davidszondy.com/future/Living/foodpills.htm Thank God we are still able to enjoy food pills]] and how we managed to get the idea of food pills.
* Tomorrowland at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]], when it opened in 1955, was themed as a prediction of life in the far-off year of 1986. Just a few short years later however it was clear that 1986 was going to be nothing like people in the 1950s were predicting, leading to the land's massive 1967 overhaul in which it was re-themed to showcasing breakthroughs that ''could'' benefit the future, but were very much available at the time.
* Fusion power. Maybe in about 50 or so years. Maybe not at all. In 1979, the fusion research group at Princeton were reasonably sure that commercial fusion power was 30 years away. Thirty years later, commercial fusion power is now 50 years away. The future is actively ''receding''. Of course, considering how powerful the anti-nuclear movement and the oil industry both are, one has to wonder if anybody has even been researching it at all since then.
* As alluded to above, one area of technology that has consistently inverted this trope is that of computing. Popular books on computing in the late '80s and early '90s would often include a vision of the "computer of the future" that we'd all be using in 2020, that would be more powerful than a contemporary supercomputer, and as well as the already familiar tasks of office functions, games and internet access would serve as a television, radio, video telephone, media player and a portal for services such as shopping, banking and government administration. At the time, such predictions were considered to be on the optimistic side. This entry was typed on the computer of 2020, in 2010. And unlike the "computer of 2020," it's a laptop. Even more impressive is that all of these things could be done on a computer in the late 90's (although admittedly not as well).\\
There's even a law for this: Moore's Law, which states that the processing capacity of computers doubles every eighteen months (one and a half years). It relies chiefly on technical innovations in different fields coming together - originally, Moore based it on transistor counts for a computer of a given size, but the law was modified to account for the improved transistors used in newer computers, making them faster, less expensive and more compact. The law has held firm since the 1960s. They had a vision of the future that was considered extremely optimistic in 30 years and was met within the decade.\\
The reason it's been consistent for decades is because it was originally popularized by the industry in making "double capacity every eighteen months" a standard production goal; it became a SelfFulfillingProphecy. Moore originally observed this development to occur every two years. On the other hand, while computers can do a lot of neat things it seems we're not much closer to a true Artificial Intelligence than we've ever been.\\
It might have taken as long as predicted if the personal computer's entertainment potential hadn't become so popular. Even as late as the early nineties, PC games were still inferior to their gaming system counterparts, and sound cards were optional purchases. It could be said that the interest in multi-media, first [=MP3s=] and then video, as well as the interest in better-looking games pushed the PC industry into its current performance arms race, as well as the thirst for faster and faster Internet speeds.
* In 1958, Louisville, Kentucky radio station [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WKRD_%28AM%29 WAKY-AM]] [[http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/17/us/after-29-years-no-moon-trip.html sponsored an essay contest]]. Winners were promised an all-expenses-paid trip to the moon, with a pay-off date in 1987. As the radio station changed ownership in the intervening 29 years, those who attempted to claim their prize weren't able to press a civil suit against it for not fulfilling this promise.
* In the photo anthology, "Music/{{Genesis|Band}}: Music/PeterGabriel, Music/PhilCollins And Beyond", written in [[TheEighties 1984]], Gabriel is asked about where music was heading. He mentions a whole new kind of "emotive technology" featuring a "big library of sound" and that you will be able to "treat things as sounds" and "be able to forget about where they came from and how you got them". He discusses how every home will have a computer and that such a dream instrument will be "an attachment that will also be as common in every home as a piano". He also predicts how musicians will one day "bring a studio into (their) bedroom and (they'll) get (their) tapes released on vinyl...the week after (they've) finished it". Essentially, he predicted the rise of MIDI, digital Portastudios, affordable digital workstations and independent distribution of music, though he still believed tapes and vinyl would remain the norm in music media.
** Though in the case of tape, magnetic tape is ''still'' the preferred method for long term storage of media and data. As for vinyl, it is regaining popularity among both the industry and listeners due to it being more difficult to pirate as well as being able to escape the worst effects of the LoudnessWar. (Not exactly a ''norm'', but still relevant, at least.)
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imbFjtX0Gc0 Here's]] one video that shows we may be closer to the future than people think. Not too bad.
* [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17127_5-deadly-sci-fi-gadgets-you-can-build-at-home.html Cracked's 5 Deadly Sci-Fi Gadgets You Can Build At Home.]] The jetpack is on the list. I Want My Jetpack, indeed. It shows you where to find plans for [[LightningGun Tesla coils]], laser guns [[MagneticWeapons railguns]], PoweredArmor, and yes, jetpacks. Slap it all together and you have an ''ComicBook/IronMan'' suit DIY project.
* Incidentally, [=TVs=] that could tune into six channels (or indeed, ''nine'') simultaneously does exist in the early 2000s, courtesy of Sharp Electronics. It turned out to be as impractical as one would think, and even more useless given the TV only has two tuners to save costs- how it worked was the first panel of the bunch would be run by the main tuner with sound, while the remaining 5 panels would be picture-only and powered by the auxiliary tuner, who would flip channels and update the respective panes every 5 seconds while the other panels except the first primary pane froze. You could probably imagine how well that worked.
** The latest series of [=DVRs=] from [=TiVo=] possess 6 tuners, fully functional as they can record up to 6 shows at a time, while you watch something already recorded. Or stream something else live over the internet via Netflix/Hulu etc.
** Some digital cable and satellite providers now offer "videowall mode" on their set top boxes, facilitating the ability to watch multiple channels simultaneously. Unfortunately, it's only practical for quickly surfing through what's available, since you only get sound on one channel and the other channel will likely lack subtitles or closed captioning. Watching it for prolonged periods of time isn't feasible. Besides, who would want to listen to the veritable cacophony of two overlapped soundstreams, not to mention six?
*** [[Series/{{Elementary}} Sherlock Holmes]], for one. And that's pretty much it, unless you also want to train your perception to superhuman levels.
* Sci-fi writer Creator/JohnCWright has pointedly asked, in essence, "How is a private helicopter not a flying limousine, exactly?"[[note]]It needs complex and arduous training and licensing to be able to fly it, and even more to fly it in rough weather. While nearly everyone can gain a driving license to drive a car anytime in any weather.[[/note]]
** Generally speaking, as it goes with most specialized technology, the demand, or the desire to create demand, would result in making the controls of such an aircraft simpler and more convenient. We've seen this same progression in everything from computers, to even cars - after all, automatic transmissions, traction control, and even all-wheel drive all serve to make driving require less skill to do, and do safely. Rather, the most significant issues with the idea, revolve around the infrastructure that would be required to manage traffic in three dimensions, and how to make such a vehicle safe, if it should break down, or run out of fuel. With normal cars, you can at least drive them off onto the shoulder, or at least push it there. If your flying car breaks down, several hundred feet in the air, not only are you going to have a spectacularly bad day, but so will everybody beneath you.
* In a sense, and to summarize previous entries, we got our jetpacks, it just wasn't the ones we expected. Sci-fi writers of the past focused on the wrong innovations, some of which were feasible but impractical (jetpacks), and others just too costly (colonies on the Moon), while underestimating the development of much more practical and profitable technologies like computers and the Internet. Hence the paradox that we have less advanced space travel than in 20th century sci-fi works but much better and more ubiquitous computing technology. We should also not forget that we are comparing the early 21st century with sci-fi predictions of the mid or second half of the 20th century. That's not such a long time. Now, compare the world of the early 20th century with that of today... Those are two completely different worlds from a technological, scientific, social and geopolitical point of view. Perhaps the world of the late 21st or early 22nd century will be just as alien and futuristic to us who still remember the 1970 and its sci-fi as today's world would be for people of 1910.
* Some people have given an alternate explanation (in addition to all the above) for this trope. Some claim that a lot of this trope comes from [[NewMediaAreEvil the fear of new media]], science and technology advancing too far, or too fast for people's liking, moralism, capitalism (as in fear of anything undermining it), bureaucracy, and other socio-political issues. [[WeaselWords Who? We don't know!]]
* You can't go to a major tech website without someone screaming about cloud computing and that the days of the PC are numbered. Amazingly enough, most of us are not on cloud computers yet. Somehow no one bothered to tell these guys that most folks might actually prefer to have all their sensitive information on drives they control rather than some company on the Internet. There's also the fact that if the Internet or company servers are down, the user is screwed, and that low hardware costs make owning a PC less of a problem than at any other time in history. Basically some of the predictions have been more about trying to push opinions than what people actually want.
** Same thing happened with "thin clients" back in the late 90's/early 00's. The idea was that with connection speeds exponentially increasing, a number of pundits were saying that work would be offloaded to central servers, and the output sent to various users with "thin clients" - computers that had just enough hardware to display, process keystrokes and input, and connect to the internet. If you're thinking that this sounds like mainframes and dumb terminals...that's because that's what it was, minus the sexy lingo that the pundits were pushing. Of course, processor speeds kept increasing, and the problems with thin client computing are similar to the problems with cloud computing, so it never really caught on.
** At least at the public and personal level. At the corporate and government level, it is catching on, largely because dumb terminals are cheap and if the network is down, work isn't being done anyway.
*** Cloud computing basically means "rent it forever" - there are business tax advantages for doing this, but people prefer to own things in their personal lives.
* We at least have {{Data Pad}}s and Communicators. We combined the two into Smartphones. And some people like to compare their phones to ''Franchise/StarTrek'''s Tricorder.
** Such comparisons started as early as the [[OlderThanTheyThink 90's]] when people started noticing that the 3 1/2" Floppy was about the same size as the data cartridges used in TOS, and clamshell flip phones becoming the size of TOS communicators, before even getting ''thinner''. Today, we've met or surpassed the vast majority of electronic/computer based devices and systems from TNG. In fact, one could fairly easily make a perfect reproduction of the bridge, using a flat screen TV as the viewscreen, and using actual touchscreen displays in the place of the painted plexiglass they used in the show for the control panels. You could even make use of an Alexa or Echo for voice commands. Sadly, giving either the voice of Creator/MajelBarrett isn't quite possible yet.
* In the age of EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture, this attitude has manifested in the form of "I Want My Ubiquitous Touchscreen Interfaces." For example, these videos claiming that this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OptqxagZDfM Corning glass technology concept]] and this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Fxe3KnLz4 Microsoft "Productivity Future Vision"]] are what most interface technologies would be like in the year 2020, which didn't really come to pass. Likely for cost and [[BoringButPractical practicality]] reasons, most touchscreens are still on devices like smartphones and tablets, and not on bathroom mirrors, refrigerators, tables, cooktops, bus stops, walls, or any smooth surface you could possibly think of.
* Video game company Wisdom Tree, a Christian-based company that had a habit of releasing unlicensed games for home consoles, broke their usual habit of making video games and ported copies of both the King James and NIV Bibles to the original Gameboy in the early 1990s, each sold on a standard cartridge. Each was a collection of text with a basic browser and a word search function. They effectively predated the popularity of e-book readers by more than a decade. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJg7zgq6VjI Proof that this actually existed.]]
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* "I want my jetpack" is the basis of a [[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook Mitchell and Webb]] [[https://youtu.be/vDIojhOkV4w sketch.]] It's a huge success sales-wise, but not at all in terms of safety.

* ''Webcomic/{{Bug|Martini}}'' had it [[http://www.bugcomic.com/comic/dear-technology/ justifiably subverted]]. And the [[http://www.bugcomic.com/comic/up-up-and-no-way/ next pass]] deconstructs the realities of commercially-available jetpacks, namely that few people will be able to afford them.