Editorial

How much future do we really want?

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

If you aren't sick of all the Back to the Future hype by now, you can stream all three episodes on Amazon Prime tonight.

In case you've missed it, today, Oct. 21, 2015, is the day Marty McFly, "Doc" Brown and Jennifer Parker visited from 1985 in Back to the Future Part II in an effort to preserve their family.

We don't know of any official Back to the Future celebrations locally, but there are plenty around the country.

Reston, Virginia, is becoming McFly's fictional hometown Hill Valley today, and a number of California events will including a screening in the parking lot of the Puente Hills Mall, where Marty blasted off in Doc Brown's souped-up DeLorean.

It's all but impossible for the Cubs to get into the World Series this year, let alone win it, but McFly and his friends might feel right at home with other aspects of the real 2015.

We all take flat-screen TVs, biometric scanning and hands-free gaming for granted, and most of us can't stand still for more than a couple of minutes without pulling out our small wireless communications devices to make an electronic payment or even a Skype or FaceTime video call.

We haven't seen anyone walking their dog with a drone, but the FAA is so worried about the devices -- a million may be sold this Christmas -- that they're proposing each of them be registered.

You won't see any hoverboards at McCook's new Bolles Canyon Skatepark, but you can buy one, provided you can afford to spend thousands of dollars to build a special track.

Barring that, we've seen hoverboards built from four leaf blowers, effective if not as elegant.

Self-lacing shoes are on the way along with various high-tech articles of clothing, and while no local mechanics know how to tune up a flux capacitor, they are fixing hybrid and electric cars, with hydrogen-powered vehicles on the way.

Google Glass is off the market for now, but wearable technology such as Fitbit is becoming the rule rather than the exception.

None of us could have accurately predicted in 1985 the ways today's technology has disrupted society, and the same will be true for the future.

But perhaps we can use today's Back to the Future reflection to decide whether we're going to let our technology control our lives or use it to make our lives truly better.

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