It doesn't matter how old you are, at some point when you were young, you probably thought that when you were older, you'd have a personal jetpack, your own robot slave and you'd be able to have sex with a toaster that looks like mom. Or something. But those wonderful developments we were all promised never came to pass. Daniel H. Wilson wants to explain why. To that end, 'Where's my Jetpack' is a mixed bag of nuts. It tackles ideas from science fiction and reality, ideas that fifty years ago se...

This was really interesting with lots of science facts. There was a bit of humor, but was a little dry. Still, I would recommend to any sci-fi or science fans.

This humorous compendium of the marvelous "Science Fiction Future Wasn't" is a little more brief than I would prefer but makes up for it with a fun tongue-in-cheek attitude and cute illustrations. Basically a series of short articles about various Sci-Fi innovations that would make our lives drastically easier (or at least so much cooler) the book looks at real-world attempts to build such things as self-driving cars (progressing pretty well), jet packs (sadly R&D on this wonderful concept is la...

This book is really just OK but I liked the concept. It brought back sweet memories of childhood, when the future seemed bright and exciting. I remember going to the 1965 World's Fair and watching The Jetsons cartoon and the original Star Trek series and believing that I would live in that type of environment when I grew up. Little did I know how depressing the reality would be. Nostalgia for those days is bittersweet...

This was a pretty fun book. Light non-fiction. It looks at all those futuristic inventions that, decades ago, we were promised in sci-fi novels, comic books, and Epcot Centre vacations. Jetpacks, moon colonies, ray guns, ex-ray specs, flying cars, robot butlers, holodecks, and a lot more. The book discusses why some ideas failed, how some succeeded, and which ones are already a part of our daily lives. My two issues with this book are: 1)the author doesn't go far enough with his research; someti...

Light, fluffy, small bites, good bathroom book ;)

Another great book by Daniel Wilson. If you've ever read sci-fiction or even glanced at the back pages of a comic book, this book is for you. The discussion of technologies we thought we would have by this time, why we don't have certain technologies and what technologies we do have is fun and informative. Most importantly I am going to get myself a hoverboard.

Shorter and more blurby than I was expecting. Like blog entries, go figure. Clearly-explained science for us non-science folks, with a nice sense of humor. Fun random factoids that are handy at parties.

This was a fun book that looks at all the fantastical elements of "the future" that was promised us in '40s/'50s sci-fi and world's fairs and what happened to those things. You know, flying cars, jetpacks, underwater hotels, ray guns, teleportation, space elevators, stuff like that. Each topic is brief and comes with illustrations and doesn't get bogged down on too much hard science as Wilson talks about how close we are to actually having one of these things in our lives. Most times we are not

I felt a little cheated out of lack of domed cities and robot servitude when the year 2000 rolled around. This was a fun read about futurism from an historical perspective...and why certain things didn't come to pass in the mainstream. (And thoughts about if it ever will and what the "new" future looks like.)There's also a really interesting site called www.paleofuture.com that hosts a move called 1999 A.D. that was filmed in the sixties. It is a MUST SEE! It's actually what inspired me to get t...

It's the 21st century, and this book provides a humorous look at the science and the secrets and the reasons behind the greatest inventions and futuristic ideas that we never realized or got. Gypped!! However, I say that in the vein of Back to the Future, we did get TWO things that were in the movie, thirty years on, and on time. One was a flat, wall mounted television, and the other of course was the hover board. While it does not look exactly like Marty's, it is still a hover board! Marty's bo...

Daniel Wilson has a grievance: All of those great future gimmicks and devices that have been promised to us by books, television, and the movies--why don't we have them? Where are our bathroom-cleaning robots, our flying cars, our invisible camouflage? Why aren't we the Jetsons?This book describes the status (it's here; or it's being worked on; or it's not gonna happen) of these devices and some of the obstacles to their development.Surprisingly, there is such a thing as a jetpack. Even more sur...

Well informed, yet overly chirpy insight into the current state of yesterday’s future today. If you see what I mean, by the author of Robopocalypse, Daniel H Wilson.A timely book this, for I have, more than once, wondered where my jetpack was. This book reminds me that life is a big swizz. Why? When I was a kid, in the 1970s, the future was all going to be space hotels and robots and food pills. After patiently waiting, I found it just simply isn’t.For this, I feel aggrieved.Wilson’s book is pre...

Fairly modern book on how possible things that we dreamt up while fantacizing about the "future" -- in what is now, such as a jet pack, an elevator to the moon, cities under the ocean, breathing underwater, a pill for lunch instead of real food etc. It's pretty interesting and amusing, it tells you if it's possible to make, or has already been made, and in the case of the jet pack where you might steal it from should you not want to build your own. It is nicely done with very clean drawings and

A fun, light look at what science fiction promised & how some of those promises are coming true. It's only a decade old, but already dated. In some ways that was good since it highlights just how fast we're moving. For instance, the changes to the space program are amazing. NASA is no longer planning to put a small colony on the moon, but leaving that to private businesses & concentrating on Mars, I believe. No mention of the Falcon rockets or how their lower stages are landing, of course. There...

Some of the best science fiction ever written was strangely prescient with its predictions on how the world would advance, technologically. One of the best examples of this was Jules Verne in his story From the Earth to the Moon. Not only did he figure out what it would take to get away from Earth's gravity, he predicted that the launch site would be in Florida. Ever since then, we have looked to the authors of science fiction to tell us what could be possible in the future of tomorrow.Unfortuna...

I really liked this one - even more than How to Survive a Robot Uprising . It's a great look at how technology is advancing compared to how people imagined it would be during the Space Race. It talks about what's commercially available, what's in development, and what's never going to happen in our lifetimes. It's both informative and humorous, which is exactly what I was hoping for. There are a few things that are a little outdated (it is seven years old at this time), but for the most part

Remember the 80s, when we wondered what the 2000s would be like? Remember figuring that we'd all be wearing collarless, reflective space suits and riding hovercraft to our offices in the sky? This book answers your questions about the "science fiction future that never arrived" and more interestingly, the ones that did. (Teleportation and x-ray vision have actually been done, although maybe not how we hoped they would). This book is funny, easy to read, and informative. The author writes with fu...

I would have never picked this book off the library shelves myself, but on a recent road trip, my husband surprised us by playing this one, and I must admit, I was entertained. Not only does Wilson discuss the misguided predictions of science fiction authors of 50 years ago and where progress now stands with inventions such as jetpacks, artificial gills, underwater cities, moon colonies, turning invisible, x-ray goggles,etc., but he also presents it with laugh out loud humor. He articulates some...

A fun and entertaining look at the shining future all those sci fi books and comics have been promising for decades. I laughed out loud a number of times and the narrator gives a great deadpan reading. Fun and frothy.