10 Inventions To Send Back To The Future

Social Networking

The Shock: Had Doc Brown and Marty actually arrived on Future Day - 5 July 2010 - they'd have been in for a virtual shock. Nowadays, if you're not living a second life, you're not living.

Twitter, Facebook, Myspace... ChatRoulette - these online hubs allow people to follow the actions of movie stars, websites, friends, naked strangers, as well as your favourite film mag .

If it hasn't happened on a social networking site then it hasn't really happened yet.

A lthough... Getting online would probably help Doc track down Marty McFly pretty easily (and the good doctor's time-jumping Twitter feed would be quite something to behold!)

Segway

The Shock : Favoured by policemen Stateside who are too lazy to patrol the streets on foot, Doc Brown and Marty would probably be scraping their jaws off the floor at these gliding delights.

Silent and speedy, they're the kind of thing you expect to see cropping up in The Jetsons or Lost In Space .

A lthough... It's not quite a hoverboard - Marty will have to wait another five years before he can hop onto one of those - but it's damn near.

Segway

The Shock : Favoured by policemen Stateside who are too lazy to patrol the streets on foot, Doc Brown and Marty would probably be scraping their jaws off the floor at these gliding delights.

Silent and speedy, they're the kind of thing you expect to see cropping up in The Jetsons or Lost In Space .

A lthough... It's not quite a hoverboard - Marty will have to wait another five years before he can hop onto one of those - but it's damn near.

iPad

[video-break]

The Shock : Steve Jobs' little smartphone has evolved into this larger touch-screen wonder. It does everything a laptop can do and more, and it shreds apparently.

Considering the Nokia 5110 would have blown the Doc's socks off, the iPad would probably have him hanging up his inventor's jacket for good.

Although... Doc could always try to develop a time-travelling app...

Wicked Lasers

The Shock : Great Scott! Actual, real-life lightsabers! (Well, the closest we've seen) Pioneered by the Japanese, this appliance can slice through pretty much anything, and comes courtesy of Japan-based boffins. It boasts 1W laser power and is classed as "extremely dangerous".

Although... Knowing Doc to be the supreme klutz that he is, he'd probably put his eye with this dangerous little non-toy. Then he'd trip and put out the other one. In short: disaster awaits.

Wireless Technology

The Shock: Let's face it, we get pretty miffed if we're relaxing in a cafe or riding on a train and we don't have wi-fi. Every gadget we buy, no matter what it is, has to come with the obligatory ability of hooking up to our wireless network.

The internet is now everywhere, man!

Although... It would have saved Doc the hassle of harnessing the power of lightning for time travel. He could have just remotely synced up the DeLorean to his home network, and Bob's your uncle!

Sat-Navs

The Shock : Perpetually saving those of us born with no internal compass, Sat-Navs have proved a bit of a godsend in recent years. A little iffy in their infancy perhaps, but invaluable these days: who doesn't love the strict schoolmistress tones telling you to 'Cross the roundabout. First Exit.'

Even the little map on the LCD screen would seem like witchcraft to Doc Brown.

Although... The Doc could've integrated the Sat-Nav into the flux capacitor, giving the driver of the DeLorean a stress-free way of planning spacetime-crossing journeys. Come to think about it, we want a Doc Brown voice for our Sat-Nav!

3D TV

The Shock : Arriving from the '80s, Marty would've probably been familiar with the dodgy 3D doing the rounds with the likes of Jaws 3D and its ilk. While visiting 2010 he'd have the pleasure of sitting in his own home with a (still, rather pricey) multi-dimensional telly.

Makes a change from those giant boxes we stared at in the '80s.

Although... If he turned up here having already visited 2015 with its 3D advertising, this wouldn't blow his mind that much.

MP3 Players

The Shock : In the 80s we swore we'd never adopt that pricey CD technolgy. Vinyl was the way forward, and that was that.

Time quickly made fools of us again though, as speedy broadband downloading proved the ideal way to buy music, direct to your player. Where Doc's going, he won't need shops to buy Huey Lewis and the News tracks.

Although... Marty could have taken an MP3 player (or some USB decks) back to his parents' prom to play 'Johnny B. Goode' and show them something their kids are really going to be into. And Chuck Berry's cousin would have left the party with an even more valuable inspiration.

Synthespians

The Shock : Even us present-day folks were a little unimpressed when the dead-eyed, zombie masses of mocap actors first staggered onto our screens (think The Polar Express and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within ).

But, thanks in no small part to Weta, sythespians and mo-cap actors are here to stay, and you need only look at the work of Andy Serkis to realise that these pixellated characters can really bring heart to a movie. Doc Brown would've barely glimpsed the beginning of the CGI revolution in 1985 ( Tron probably being all he had seen).

Although... Doc Brown wouldn't have to worry about Robert Zemeckis replacing him, as he could remain forever young inside a skin-tight mo-cap suit.

Video Games

The Shock : Departing 1985, Marty would've only been familiar with the earliest examples of video game culture. He'd have probably played arcade games, and maybe his scientific interests would have seen him pick up a NES, but nothing could prepare him for the wealth of gaming he'd find in 2010.

The graphics, the storylines, the interactivity: you almost don't need a time-travelling DeLorean.

Although... Marty could have stolen some ideas and travelled back in time to make amends for all the substandard BTTF video games we had to settle for back in the day.