Where's My Jetpack

We've all seen the sort of futuristic life which science fiction promises us. But this is the future, so why don't we have colonies on the moon and Mars, and why aren't we surrounded by robots? In Where's My Jetpack?:A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived , Daniel Wilson looks at a number of futuristic technologies, and tell us if they have actually been implemented.

Jetpacks, it seems, were a popular idea in the 1960's, but never got anywhere. Likewise the fuel consumption and likelyhood of accidents means than flying cars have yet to replace ground based ones. Teleportation looks like the way ahead - but so far only works on single photons.

Robots pets are now becoming available, even if there's some way to go before robot servants will be doing our housework for us. If you're rich enough you can go on a space vacation, and you can even try to defeat death by having you're body frozen when you die, with the hope of being revived when medical technology improves.

The book has many other short articles explaining whether you might be able to get hold of futuristic devices, and would make an ideal gift for any sci-fi addicts that you know. It doesn't go too deeply into why society has rejected such ideas, but is just what you need for a bit of humourous reading to fill odd moments.