Dude, Where's My Flying Car?

There's an old inspirational maxim that goes something like this: "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." Such is the power of assonance ... to cause pithy inspirational adages to linger in memory. The power of the mind to believe things into existence is, well, less readily demonstrable. Science fiction authors and others have been conceiving technologies beyond the grasp of modern engineering for generations, after all.

Some of that stuff, to be fair, is actually more or less present in the here and now. We can see analogous technologies to the futuristic daydreams of yesteryear all around us. On the other hand, just because people who've already retired know what "Beam me up, Scotty" refers to doesn't mean that all of that conceiving and believing has delivered a functioning transportation via dematerialization technology, or that we've even taken baby steps in that direction.

So while the calendar has indeed rolled over to that optimistic interlude when articles about coming technological advances are lighting the starry eyes of eager believers, it's still not time to start comparison shopping for a robot butler, or pondering whether a jetpack could shorten your commute. After all, one of the biggest news stories of the day still concerns whether we should use concrete or steel to build a wall. We'll get to handheld laser pistols ... eventually.

One thing that does seem to be fairly clear in all of this is that computer technology is driving the advances that we can already point to, as well as the still unrealized visions that seem to be most realistically within reach. If you want to play a part in building the future envisioned by both storytellers and scientists, then your best bet is to start building a repertoire of computing knowledge and skills. The more you learn about IT, the better positioned you'll be.

Here at TestOut Continuing Education, we can't tell you how to design and build an anti-gravity generator, or how many of those you'd need to create a floating city. What we can offer, on the other hand, is some of the best IT training and certification courseware you'll find. We can help you lay the foundation for a career path that merges into the fast lane of technological advancement. We can help you get the skills and knowledge you need to find out where that road leads next.