Our idea of the future is a world full of astounding technology, remarkable engineering defeats, and overwhelming sky scrapers. If you look at how far the world has come over the past 10 years, to be completely honest, the landscape hasn’t changed an awful lot. The reason for this isn’t that technology, knowledge and expertise haven’t progressed, but that we aren’t daring enough to make any significant changes. Industries like the media exaggerate everything, making everything a public issue, when really many things are best left to the experts. For example, when The Large Hadron Collider was launched, the world was in a state of panic. The rumour was we were all going to die through the formation of a black hole, as a result of this experiment. We are too scared to move forward and explore and implement new ideas, because we are too afraid of the possible consequences. Safety regulations have almost grown into an obstruction against innovation and new inventions. One of the main components of the image we have of our future world is flying cars. Made popular by Hollywood movies such as The Fifth Element, we predict the air to carry our mass transport in forthcoming years. The truth is, the technology and knowledge on how to build a flying car, is already here. Inventors have already developed the first flying car and it is already possible to make this a reality. However, could you really every imagine it being given consent? It would breach every safety, security, protection, and public welfare regulation there is. We are too afraid to materialise our future.
Called the ‘Terrafugia Transition’ and developed by former Nasa engineers, it can transform itself from a two-seater road car to a plane in 15 seconds. Powered by the same 100bhp engine on the ground and in the air, it will be able to fly up to 500 miles on a single tank of petrol at a speed of 115mph. It has the capability to solve problems such as congestion and traffic jams, and revolutionise the world we live in. We need to expand our transportation systems fast enough to meet our increasing demands.