5 Mind-Bending Sights: Finally, The Future Is Starting To Look Like We Thought It Would

2015—that just sounds like the future, right.  But does it look like the future? Because, that’s the thing, right—we all know technology is advancing at exponential rates. We are making soaring progress in a host of whiz-bang fields. But other than Tokyo, Times Square and, sometimes, Las Vegas from the right angle, the future doesn’t yet look like we thought the future would look.

But that is starting to change. Over the past few months, we’ve started to get clearer and clearer looks at the world that’s coming. Here are five of my favorites sights of tomorrow already here today:

Pixel: Technically, this is a dance performance mixed with real-time interactive digital  projections, actually it’s a visit to the Matrix. Or, to be a little more precise, it’s what happens when the Matrix comes to us.

The New Mercedes: We know the future is autonomous cars, but other than Google’s bubbly proto-type—far too cute to be futuristic—we haven’t seen anything here in the real world that gives us a glimpse of the real deal. With four passengers facing one another, having a conversation while the car drives itself, well, now we have.

Joan Didion:  Two days ago, British fashion designer Phoebe Philo made Joan Didion, the 80-year-old Queen of American letters, the face of her spring 2015 line of the fashion label Celine. Why is this so futuristic? For the past 50 years advertisers have fetishized the young. Think about how radically different the world would look and sound if octogenarians  became the next top models and super-celebrities.

Afterglow: This is the latest ski film from action sports filmmakers Sweetgrass. It’s skiers, wearing suits made from glowing LED lights,  shredding the sick-gnar. It’s one of the more beautiful things I’ve ever seen.