It's 2024, where are the flying cars?

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The next emerging technology hits our local news or social media every day, and while some of that new tech is here, does it also seem like a really big breakthrough is always years away?

For decades, from 2001: A Space Odyssey, to IBM commercials, to the Back to the Future series and everything in between, pop culture and pundits have predicted a future that was full of amazing technology, but largely never arrived.

But forget flying cars and space travel. In 2024, our rockets explode, our artificial intelligence is "lazy," and our self-driving cars crash. What happened?

For answers, CBS 58's Bill Walsh spoke with David Zach, a futurist. He has spoken all over the country on about the "next big thing," and what happens after it hits. See his work here.

Zach says pop culture doesn't have to be accurate, just compelling, and other predictions are likely out to sell you something. And that some amazing technology is already here, but with unintended consequences.

"Universal communication devices," he said (while holding up his cell phone), "but they are really little pocket mirrors, so as a result of these things, we talk to fewer people."

Zach says he doesn't make predictions, because if he could actually predict the future, he'd be rich in the stock market. But he does study trends, and the consequences of new technology. He thinks artificial intelligence will lead to amazing discoveries but cautions that it will create a new set of problems that need to be solved.

"Eighty percent of what you do, is going to be better done by a machine, or by somebody paid less, with less training," he said, "so if you want to thrive and survive in the coming years, you gotta find out what's that unique 20% that can't be automated."