The Craziest Sci-Fi Fantasies That Got Closer to Reality This Year

Ursula K. Le Guin's first novel, Rocannon's World , introduces the ansible, a device that allows people to communicate instantaneously across astronomical distances. This September, scientists made an important step in this realizing this technology by showing they could remotely obliterate a photon that was 15 miles away by messing with its quantum entangled partner. University of Geneva (UNIGE)

Ursula K. Le Guin's first novel, Rocannon's World , introduces the ansible, a device that allows people to communicate instantaneously across astronomical distances. This September, scientists made an important step in this realizing this technology by showing they could remotely obliterate a photon that was 15 miles away by messing with its quantum entangled partner.

University of Geneva (UNIGE)

From Blood Music by Greg Bear, to The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, blood borne health care bots are a beloved science fiction concept. This year, scientists created self-powered, swimming micro-robots that could one day be used to play doctor on your body from the inside. Alejandro Posada/Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

From Blood Music by Greg Bear, to The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, blood borne health care bots are a beloved science fiction concept. This year, scientists created self-powered, swimming micro-robots that could one day be used to play doctor on your body from the inside.

Alejandro Posada/Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

Back in May, the FDA approved a robot hand inspired by Luke Skywalker’s prosthetic from The Empire Strikes Back. This month, doctors at Johns Hopkins upped the ante by outfitting this double amputee with two brain-controlled robot arms. Johns Hopkins University

Back in May, the FDA approved a robot hand inspired by Luke Skywalker’s prosthetic from The Empire Strikes Back. This month, doctors at Johns Hopkins upped the ante by outfitting this double amputee with two brain-controlled robot arms.

Johns Hopkins University

In Arthur C. Clarke's classic novel, The City and the Stars , a computer stores the DNA of Earth's immortal residents, allowing only a few at a time to inhabit living bodies. In related news, this year Google announced that it wants to store your genome in the cloud. Bill Branson/National Institutes of Health

In Arthur C. Clarke's classic novel, The City and the Stars , a computer stores the DNA of Earth's immortal residents, allowing only a few at a time to inhabit living bodies. In related news, this year Google announced that it wants to store your genome in the cloud.

Bill Branson/National Institutes of Health

Since 2003, Skype has made it possible to video chat with anyone on the planet--granted you spoke the same language. However, this year the company released a real-time translation tool that is so good it invites comparisons to the amazing Universal Translator used by Star Trek: Enterprise's Ensign Sato. Skype

Since 2003, Skype has made it possible to video chat with anyone on the planet--granted you spoke the same language. However, this year the company released a real-time translation tool that is so good it invites comparisons to the amazing Universal Translator used by Star Trek: Enterprise's Ensign Sato.

Skype

Speaking of Star Trek, anyone for photon cannons? This year the US Navy approved the first combat-ready laser cannon. After performing brilliantly in trials, the skipper of the amphibious dock transport vessel USS Ponce is authorized to use the weapon—called LaWS—to defend his ship. US Navy

Speaking of Star Trek, anyone for photon cannons? This year the US Navy approved the first combat-ready laser cannon. After performing brilliantly in trials, the skipper of the amphibious dock transport vessel USS Ponce is authorized to use the weapon—called LaWS—to defend his ship.

US Navy

One last Star Trek reference, I promise. A company called Natural Machines this year released the Foodini. The contraption can be programmed to print a plethora of recipes, from macron cookies to veggie burgers. Natural Machines

One last Star Trek reference, I promise. A company called Natural Machines this year released the Foodini. The contraption can be programmed to print a plethora of recipes, from macron cookies to veggie burgers.

Natural Machines

In the Schwarzenegger classic The 6th Day , Arnie visits a cloning shop called RePet and mulls making a copy of the recently run over family mutt. Dog cloning debuted in 2004, but there haven't been many commercial options until Sooam Biotech opened in South Korea this year. Sooam Biotech

In the Schwarzenegger classic The 6th Day , Arnie visits a cloning shop called RePet and mulls making a copy of the recently run over family mutt. Dog cloning debuted in 2004, but there haven't been many commercial options until Sooam Biotech opened in South Korea this year.

Sooam Biotech

Thanks to the Oculus Rift, virtual reality is finally here. But full immersion---like in Ernest Cline's Ready Player One ---is going to require devices that simulate what the digital world would feel like on our physical bodies. These exoskeleton controllers from Dexta Robotics are a clunky but important first step to realistic haptic feedback. Dextra Robotics

Thanks to the Oculus Rift, virtual reality is finally here. But full immersion---like in Ernest Cline's Ready Player One ---is going to require devices that simulate what the digital world would feel like on our physical bodies. These exoskeleton controllers from Dexta Robotics are a clunky but important first step to realistic haptic feedback.

Dextra Robotics

Some technology can't help but freak us out. Like this cheetah robot from MIT that can run up to 30 mph, and even clear obstacles, all without wires. Cool stuff, but it's a little too much like the mutations that ate Cato in The Hunger Games for our liking. MIT

Some technology can't help but freak us out. Like this cheetah robot from MIT that can run up to 30 mph, and even clear obstacles, all without wires. Cool stuff, but it's a little too much like the mutations that ate Cato in The Hunger Games for our liking.

MIT

Central to the plot of Gattaca was a DNA sequencer that the genetically-inferior hero, played by Ethan Hawke, has to game in order to become a spacecraft pilot. This year, New Zealand researchers built the first handheld DNA sequencer which they swear is for health care diagnostics and not to keep me from my dream of one day rocketing to Saturn. University of Otago, New Zealand

Central to the plot of Gattaca was a DNA sequencer that the genetically-inferior hero, played by Ethan Hawke, has to game in order to become a spacecraft pilot. This year, New Zealand researchers built the first handheld DNA sequencer which they swear is for health care diagnostics and not to keep me from my dream of one day rocketing to Saturn.

University of Otago, New Zealand

Modern technology is amazing, but everybody knows that the future won't officially arrive until we get to shred on hoverboards like Marty McFly. That's why, even with its notable limitations, the Hendo has us digging up our Huey Lewis tapes in anticipation. Hendo Hoverboards

Modern technology is amazing, but everybody knows that the future won't officially arrive until we get to shred on hoverboards like Marty McFly. That's why, even with its notable limitations, the Hendo has us digging up our Huey Lewis tapes in anticipation.

Hendo Hoverboards