5 Things From Futurama’s Future That We Want To Become Real (& 5 That We Don’t)

Sci-fi films and TV shows have the unique ability to offer their viewers visions of the future – sometimes joyful, sometimes horrifying, but usually interesting. These visions often include many futuristic gadgets that are super cool and could make all of our lives a bit more entertaining or at least easier.

The successful animated sci-fi comedy TV show Futurama is no exception in this area, and throughout its long run, it presented a multitude of inventions that are perfectly normal in the year 3000 but that don’t yet exist in our world. Some of them would many people enjoy even today while others are best left in fiction. Here’s our pick of both.

10 WANT: Cryogenic Chambers

Who wouldn’t want to travel into the future and see what the world will be like in 100, 200, or even more years? Most of us definitely would since it would also mean seeing exciting new times and trying out inventions and things that we couldn’t come up with even in our wildest imaginations.

People in Futurama have this option and they can decide to climb into a cryogenic chamber, which will keep them frozen and at the same age, they were when they first climbed in. This is how Fry gets into the future in the first place when he seemingly accidentally gets frozen and wakes-up a thousand years later, in a completely different society.

9 DON’T WANT: Smelloscope

There are plenty of impressive gimmicks in Futurama‘s world… but the smelloscope isn’t one of them, especially if you have a highly sensitive nose.

If you’re interested in space, you probably like to look at the stars and the sky, but did you know you could also smell space? Fry does and while he’s intrigued at first, he eventually changes his mind about using the smelloscope when he comes across a truly disgusting smell and almost chokes.

So you could give the smelloscope a shot if you’d like but it’s appropriate to say that you’d never know what kind of smell you could come across, which is why we’ll pass.

8 WANT: What-If Machine

Do you remember the Mirror of Erised from Harry Potter? Well, this machine is similar, except it’s much more interactive and easier to clean than a huge mirror.

As its name suggests, the machine has the ability to show you what would have happened if you had done something differently. For example, what would have happened if you had gone on a date with the guy/girl who asked you out but you refused? Having such a machine could lead to a lot of interesting moments since many people like to wonder what would have happened if they did something in a different way. Plus, you’d get to watch your alternate fate in the form of a film, which could be really funny. Don’t forget to bring popcorn!

7 DON’T WANT: Farnsworth Parabox

Professor Hubert Farnsworth is a genius, something which certainly can’t be said about his great-great-great-etc. uncle Fry. However, the professor sometimes crosses the line and comes up with inventions that are much more harmful and dangerous than useful. One such example is the Farnsworth parabox, which is a box that allows you to travel to alternate universes and meet your alternate versions. That sounds pretty cool, right?

Except that if somebody damages or destroys the box containing your universe, he also destroys the whole universe. Not to mention that there are a lot of weird alternate universes with strange versions of yourself which you’d do best not to visit.

6 WANT: Holophonor

Here comes the good news for all music lovers and talented players out there. Forget the violin or the piano, in the year 3000, the hardest musical instrument one can learn to play is the holophonor.

Being able to play it on a master level is so impressive it can even help you charm the person you love and gain their affection. When you can play the holophonor really well, you can create whole visions and scenes around you, which is beautiful. Of course, if you suck at playing, the only thing you’ll create are horrifying and disgusting scenarios and everybody’s ears will bleed.

5 DON’T WANT: Scooty-Puff Jr.

This invention is a bit debatable. Scooty-Puff Jr. isn’t necessarily a bad invention, it just doesn’t really work for adult-sized people since its creators are the Niblorians, a super-intelligent but very small alien race. They use the Scooty-Puff Jr. for moving around in space and it barely has enough space for them, let alone a fully grown human man.

Fry, unfortunately, finds this out the hard way. When he’s working with the Niblorians, the Scooty-Puff Jr. he’s using falls apart underneath him when Fry tries to escape.

4 WANT: Dr. Flimflam’s Miracle Cream

If you’ve ever dreamed of being a superhero and saving the world with your amazing powers then this Futurama invention would certainly catch your eye.

When Fry and Leela use Dr. Flimflam’s Miracle Cream, they suddenly discover they have unusual superpowers which they use for fighting crimes in costumes. Even Bender joins them once he discovers what they’re doing. Unfortunately, nothing great lasts forever and when Leela and Fry run out of the cream, they revert back to their original selves.

3 DON’T WANT: Fing-Longer

The fing-longer is another a rather useless invention by Professor Farnsworth. This time, he came up with the invention in an alternate dimension.

The fing-longer is a long artificial finger which you can put on your actual finger and use it to reach into a greater distance, like, for example, for turning on your TV or your computer. However, it really doesn’t do anything else and you also need to learn how to handle it since it makes it difficult to use your finger in the first place. As far as Futurama inventions go, this one probably wouldn’t do well on the market.

2 WANT: Universal Translator

The universal translator is by far one of the most practical inventions on this list and it’s also one that has appeared in multiple sci-fi franchises, not only in Futurama but also in Star Trek, to name just one. As the name suggests, it allows you to translate and communicate with anybody, no matter what language they’re speaking and whether you’ve ever heard it before or not.

When they first created it in the world of Futurama, it only supposedly translated an incomprehensible dead language that the viewers actually recognized as French but it later became much more useful and included more languages.

1 DON’T WANT: Career Chip

The career chip could potentially be useful… if there was a chance to pick a different one in case your current job would turn out to be the wrong choice for you. When you get your career chip, you also get a job you are obliged to do and if you don’t do it, well then you find yourself in trouble. Unless you can somehow get your hands on a new chip.

When Fry gets into the future, he’s excited because he thinks that he won’t have to work as a delivery boy anymore. That doesn’t work out for him and he gets a career chip which says he’ll be a delivery boy. Sometimes it’s just better to choose your future for yourself.

About The Author

Kath Leroy
(523 Articles Published)

Kath Leroy is a writer at Screen Rant. She also publishes in a number of Czech magazines. She works as an actress and appeared in feature films, short films, as well as TV series. Kath has loved movies, TV, and literature ever since she was a child and her father first played Star Trek for her. Since she has a background in writing genre fiction and screenplays, Kath enjoys fantasy, sci-fi, and superhero films and shows above all – however, she likes to watch films of all genres.

Visit Kath Leroy’s blog for her articles about culture, acting life as well as other topics, follow her on Twitter and on Instagram as @girlartistgeek or contact her directly at [email protected]

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