See you later

In “Fast Forward: Inventing the Future,” the Museum of Science and Industry skips past flying cars in favor of about a dozen earthbound inventions. Exhibition curator Kathleen McCarthy prompts viewers to ponder the possibilities and ask themselves, What if…?

Photo: Courtesy of Cantu

BEAM ME UP A BURGER AND FRIES, SCOTTY
“[Chicago chef] Homaro Cantu worked with the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts to create a food replicator, like something from Star Trek. Using molecular replication, we will be able to re-create an apple on a 3-D printer. Being able to instantly send real, nutritious, good-tasting food—with no refrigeration required—could be a big help in a situation such as Katrina or a tsunami. You could just print out a meal.”

Photo: Courtesy of CuteCircuit

HUG IT OUT; STITCH
“CuteCircuit designers [Ryan Genz and Francesca Rosella] say that functionality was put into clothing about 1,000 years ago and hasn’t been updated since. The Hug Shirt uses [your mobile phone] to transfer sensation from one shirt to another. Right now, the clothes are fun and highly interactive, but in the future, this technology could be used for medical applications such as heartbeat or blood-pressure monitoring.”

Photo: Rendering Courtesy of Chris Jacobs, United Future

PIE—AND CORN, WHEAT AND MORE—IN THE SKY
“Architecture students, including some from University of Illinois and Illinois Institute for Technology, are working on stacking farmland in tall buildings. The beauty of these vertical farms is that food production could happen in any location, be it a city or a desert. But the really big implication is that we could repair the environment by returning some of our farmland to a natural state.”