FutureWorld started talking about the impact of the ‘Youth-Tech’ factor many years ago – that fearless, entrepreneurial and smart young people, empowered by easy access to radical technologies, were working to reinvent the world. In so many ways, the science fiction of our past is becoming a daily reality.

Just a few weeks ago the first ‘Willy Wonka’ elevators were installed in a Dubai high-rise (much of which, incidentally, was 3D printed). Remember the movie based on the Roald Dahl story ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, in which high-speed elevators whipped along in all different directions? Engineers at Germany’s ThyssenKrupp have turned it into reality, after years of careful testing of what they call ‘multi-directional’ elevators, using maglev technology.

And then there are flying cars. Early futurists promised flying cars, but it seemed this would remain in the realm of science fiction. Until now!

Forbes Magazine wrote in 2017: “Is this the breakthrough year for flying cars?” And indeed, it proved to be. Only two years later, there are several working models available and, as usual, regulators are scurrying to catch up with tech reality. Although regulation hardly seems necessary, as these flying vehicles are all piloted by super-smart AI systems.

What about the ‘Tricorder’ from Star Trek – a medical diagnosis device that you simply waved over the patient to find out what was wrong? Thanks to the famous XPrizes, there are in fact five different types of working Tricorders on the market now that both enable self-diagnosis, and assist medical professionals to speedily identify and respond to symptoms. And, of course, personalized medicine is commonplace.

There are many more examples of science turning fiction into future fact. Let another FutureWorld saying make the point: “The impossible will happen – so suspend your skepticism!”