History Main / IWantMyJetPack

* In ''Film/{{Oblivion}}'' is is shown that by 2017 we'd have space travel advanced enough to allow a manned mission to Titan, and very durable HumanPopsicle escape pods that can take the occupants all the way back to Earth.

* In the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "Dead End", Angel comments that he assumed the world would be like ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' by the 2000's.

* 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 2019-20 COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many people to work from their homes, has only accelerated the growth of the videophone market.

* YACHT's 2015 album ''I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler'' invokes this trope, with the TitleTrack in particular satirizing the modern world of TheNewTens as being significantly less groovy as everyone thought they'd be, with [[TechnoDystopia the advanced technology they're surrounded by being a lot more vaguely hostile in nature]].

* The band We Were Promised Jetpacks seem to allude to this in their name.

** Even beyond that issue - anybody who has had to drive frequently on expressways and other high-volume traffic areas, would question the wisdom of subjecting drivers that can barely handle navigating traffic in two dimensions, to a third. Not to mention the dangers of having your car break down.

This trope is also largely a result of changing technological trends. Much of our classic sci-fi technology is ultimately rooted in the Jet Age, with its Cold War-driven focus on spacecraft and industrial gadgetry. Instead, technology turned more towards miniaturised computers and consumer electronics, and so much of today's speculative fiction now envisions [[EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture a future full of nano-computers, neural networks, implausible user-interfaces, and so forth]], while cars remain firmly on solid ground; but it may very well be that these visions of the future will turn out just as accurate as the old ones. After all, [[https://www.cnet.com/news/moores-law-is-dead-nvidias-ceo-jensen-huang-says-at-ces-2019/ Moore's Law being on its deathbed]] while {{nano|machines}}technology and artificial intelligences are still far from being as powerful as sci-fi authors promised they'd be certainly isn't helping their case.

* 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, table tops, ovens, bus stops, walls, or any smooth surface you could possibly think of.

* 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, table tops, ovens, bus stops, or walls.

* 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. Most touchscreens are still on devices like smartphones and tablets, and not on bathroom mirrors, refrigerators, table tops, ovens, bus stops, or walls.

* 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. Most touchscreens are still on devices like phones and tablets, and not on bathroom mirrors, refrigerators, table tops, ovens, bus stops, or walls.

* 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.

** Even beyond that issue - anybody who has had to drive frequently on expressways and other high-volume traffic areas, would question the wisdom of subjecting drivers that can barely handle navigating traffic in two dimensions,to a third. Not to mention the dangers of having your car break down.

Contrast with: ItsASmallNetAfterAll, (in the aforementioned rant, Leo dismisses the Internet as "[[TheInternetIsForPorn A more efficient delivery system for pornography]],fwatches") TechMarchesOn. Compare with {{Zeerust}} and FailedFutureForecast.

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

* In the movie ''Film/TheThirteenthFloor'' a man in the 1990s discovers [[spoiler:he's really in a VR simulation of the 90s created in 2024]]. At one point he gets to see what 2024 looks like, and the buildings are all bizarre "futuristic" things out of ''Buck Rogers''. Of course, [[spoiler:the ending hints that maybe even this world is really a simulation]].

** 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.

** 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.

We got a lot of cool stuff, [[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 assault rifles 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.

* ''Webcomic/{{Bug|Martini}}'' had it [[http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/dear-technology/ justifiably subverted]]. And the [[http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/up-up-and-no-way/ next pass]], where RealityEnsues.

This trope is also largely a result of changing technological trends. Much of our classic sci-fi technology is ultimately rooted in the Jet Age, with its Cold War-driven focus on spacecraft and industrial gadgetry. Instead, technology turned more towards miniaturised computers and consumer electronics, and so much of today's speculative fiction now envisions [[EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture a future full of nano-computers, neural networks, implausible user-interfaces, and so forth]], while cars remain firmly on solid ground, but it may very well be that these visions of the future will turn out just as accurate as the old ones. After all, [[https://www.cnet.com/news/moores-law-is-dead-nvidias-ceo-jensen-huang-says-at-ces-2019/ Moore's Law being on its deathbed]] while {{nano|machines}}technology and artificial intelligences are still far from being as powerful as sci-fi authors promised they'd be certainly isn't helping their case.

This trope is also largely a result of changing technological trends. Much of our classic sci-fi technology is ultimately rooted in the Jet Age, with its Cold War-driven focus on spacecraft and industrial gadgetry. Instead, technology turned more towards miniaturised computers and consumer electronics, and so much of today's speculative fiction now envisions [[EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture a future full of nano-computers, implausible user-interfaces, and so forth]], while cars remain firmly on solid ground. It may very well be that these visions of the future will turn out just as accurate as the old ones...

Contrast with: ItsASmallNetAfterAll, (in the aforementioned rant, Leo dismisses the Internet as "[[TheInternetIsForPorn A more efficient delivery system for pornography]],fwatches") TechMarchesOn. Compare with {{Zeerust}}.

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 present day 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]], [[FrickinLaserBeams laser weapons]] and most importantly, {{Jet Pack}}s!

--->'''Jerry:;;; It's like we're living in the 50s here.

* We Were Promised Jetpacks seems to allude to this in their band name.