Flying Cars
Flying cars and the future are synonymous. That's how we know it's not the future yet: there are no flying cars in mass production. Someday they'll start making workable flying cars, it'll be the future, and we can all eat Dippin' Dots and talk about the barbaric, uncivilized past while dodging plummeting bodies. C+

Food Pills
The thing I always liked about food pills in The Jetsons is that they always seemed to enjoy them so much. An apple pie food pill seemed to bring them as much contentment and happiness as an actual apple pie. You can get much the same effect with Jelly Bellys, true, but they really haven't moved past the dessert genre. C-

Laser Guns
It's a good thing that laser guns are going to be around in the future, because so far the uses of lasers have been universally disappointing. Instead of blasting the heads of mucus-filled aliens, we're correcting vision, pointing to things in office presentations, and making security systems look cool. What happens if aliens invade right now. What are we going to do, viciously and savagely cure their myopia? B

Jet Packs
Jet packs lack certain features compared to flying cars, such as cargo space and a cup holder, but they're darned cool. You get to zoom! I don't do enough zooming in my daily life. I think the ideal jet pack has gouts of flame spurting out the back, but concentric circles of some unidentified energy would be okay too. Maybe a switch. A

Household Robots
It's interesting to me, looking into the future, that the main obstacle to a machine passing the Turing test will be its tinny, echoing voice. You'd think that after creating human-like intelligence from silicon and electricity, turning down the reverb would be a no-brainer, but science is weird that way. At any rate, household robots will come in three models: monotone, sassy, and British. I'd go with British. Monotone will probably kill things. B-

Submissive Housewives
It's strange, looking at fifties-era articles on what the future will bring, that there seems to be a unanimous belief that women will cease to have careers, wear trousers, or even leave the house, but will instead put their hair into intricate scultpures, slip on pinafores, and dedicate their entire lives to cooking and cleaning. I'm not sure what social advantage this serves, especially considering the food pills and household robots, but I think it's somehow related to men of the future adopting hats and pipes. D