When I was a child, I used to watch Blade Runner and wonder when we'd finally have those flying cars Hollywood screenwriters love to imagine. Something tells me, now that I'm an adult, that we'd only succeed at creating as much traffic in mid-air as we do on the ground. (Humans can't be trusted with technology––that's another thing I learned as I grew older.)
After Redditor JamperSteve asked the online community, "What invention from a show do you wish was real?" people weighed in with their suggestions.
"How awesome would that be."
Star Trek has these machines that could materialize any food you wanted instantly. How awesome would that be. No need to go to grocery store and buy 27 ingredients you'll only use one time only to mess up the recipe. No need to go to expensive restaurants. Got a picky eater? It can make whatever hyper specific thing they want in a flash.
"Never pay for movers again."
The Infinite Storage Cube from Jimmy Neutron. Practical, portable, and supremely useful. Never pay for movers again.
"The food gum..."
The food gum from the Willy Wonka movie. Minus turning into a blueberry, though.
"It's got a swimming pool..."
The TARDIS, of course. It's got a swimming pool in the library!
"That virtual reality..."
That virtual reality world where you can upload your mind after your death like in "San Junipero" episode of Black Mirror.
"Just a little cupboard..."
The linen closet from Sabrina the Teenage Witch would be cool. Just a little cupboard in your house that you can travel through to another dimension where you can get burger on chips on Mars and stuff like that.
"A non-lethal firearm..."
Icers from Agents of SHIELD. A non-lethal firearm that could incapacitate someone faster than a bullet with no long term damage. Would be an absolute game changer for law enforcement because you could easily incapacitate people and control tough situations without someone needing to die.
"Without that..."
Everybody mentioning transporters, replicators, and holodecks from Star Trek, but none of those things would be practical without the warp core creating near-limitless clean energy.
Without that, the amount of energy required to make those possible would likely be far too impractical.
"Honestly..."
Honestly the "What If" machine from Futurama. It'd be cool to see how different my life would've turned out, like what if I had chosen a better object for this question?
"Think about it..."
Capsules from Dragon Ball. Think about it, you can take practically ANYTHING ANYWHERE! Your whole bedroom, a car, a freaking house, etc. Capsule Cars would make parking a complete non-issue that I as a part-time delivery guy would HEAVILY appreciate.
"It hooks up to your brain..."
There's an machine in Black Mirror that helps you view memories. It hooks up to your brain and literally shows your memories on the screen. I wouldn't use it though because my memory is basically useless, but imagine the things it could be used for!
"Don't you?"
Since replicators have already been mentioned, I'm going to go ahead and say "Holodecks".
Want to go to Disneyland, but can't afford the price? Holodeck One.
Want to practice proposing to your girlfriend? Holodeck Two.
Want to watch your douchebag boss and sucky coworkers get eaten by lions in Africa (without actually killing them)? Holodeck Three.
Those holodecks allowed Federation staff to enact (and reenact) their wildest dreams while keeping it all safe. You can even turn the safety off for riskier adventures if you want, as long as you follow the law and not kill anyone, that is!
I wish holodecks were real. Don't you?
I'm baffled..."
I'm baffled that no one has said the portal gun from Rick and Morty. That'd be my first choice at least.
"I don't have big dreams..."
I don't have big dreams, I just want that shell-shaped e-reader from the movie It Follows. Is that so much to ask?!
"Not sure if..."
Not sure if the remote from the movie Click with Adam Sandler has been mentioned yet but that would be a cool one. Without the weird adapting to your tendencies thing it does of course.
"Because if it existed..."
The arc fusion reactor from Iron Man. Because if it existed, we would have clean, renewable, cheap and safe energy.
"Good times."
In the original Lost in Space (Around 1965 or so), Judy put whole potatoes in a machine the size and shape of what we now recognize as a microwave oven, and in a second or two she opened the door to potato chips. That scene has stuck with me all these years. Good times.
"I'm sure a lot of them..."
Not a show, but with as many sequels its had, it may as well be: Jurassic Park. The DNA replicator. That would be amazing to recreate extinct species. I'm sure a lot of them would never be able to survive in today's conditions what with bacteria, viruses, and general climate change, but imagine the biological discoveries we could make observing our origins in real time.
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