Welcome to the Future

I was sat on a Victoria line tube train a little while ago, I think it may have been a return journey after a pretty messy night out, and my head was forming a load of half-jumbled half-conscious thoughts about life and the future and other such incomprehensible topics. I thought about Marty McFly and his hoverboard, and how we're way off on whatever his predicted targets would've been about hoverboard production in the 21st century, and considered what technological milestones would have to be reached to move us forward to a hoverboard-using technologically-advanced future.

We pulled into a station, and I was vaguely aware of being told to keep my belongings with me at all times, and that CCTV was in use throughout the train for my safety and security.

Image courtesy of ScoutLondon - thank you!

And, for whatever reason, it suddenly hit me that I was miles under London's surface, travelling through underground tunnels on this electrical transit system with digitalised displays and a disembodied voice announcing where I was, and where I would next be, and where I'd end up if I dared to fall asleep and miss my stop, and that yes, I was being watched, my every move being scrutinised, for safety and security purposes, much like George Orwell had predicted some 63 years ago.

And I realised that, despite the absence of hoverboards, I am very much in The Future.

(Or, you know, The Present, as we now like to call it.)

Wi-Fi (not) on the line?

So thanks to the fact that lately Twitter has been my major source of info anything-related, it's come to my attention that Transport for London are planning to introduce Wi-Fi services on the London Underground. All well and good, thanks very much. But, given that they're not going to be introducing it on the actual trains, does beg the question - why? If you're using the tube at rush hour, it's never more than 2-3min wait for the next train. How much googling/tweeting does one expect to do in that time..?

However, I acknowledge that it would be especially beneficial to have an outlet for commuters' anger when tubes are delayed/evacuated/too packed.

Though I'd also imagine that pretty soon they'd have to mock up some TfL advisory posters, along the lines of "I will not unwittingly hit into people in stations and on platforms while I've my nose buried in my Wi-Fi enabled device."

(Photo found here - thank you!)