Every generation since the dawn of the Industrial Age believed that it had reached the pinnacle of technical achievement. How could communications ever improve beyond the telegraph? Imagine being able to listen to music recorded on a wax tube! Can you believe we can hear people talking miles away on this thing called radio? Only science fiction visionaries could imagine the wonders of the real Twenty-First Century.

But there's one thing we know today that past generations couldn't see: Not only haven't we reached the pinnacle of technical achievement, we haven't even scratched the surface. Perhaps our greatest technological achievement is our ability to see beyond our own parochial technological present into the future.

For instance, high-definition television (HDTV) is growing up before our eyes but is still in its adolescence. More television shows are being broadcast in high-definition and more and more HD-only channels are being created. On February 17, 2009, HDTV will reach the age of consent when analog broadcasting ends in the United States and, by the middle of the next decade, nearly everywhere else on the planet as well. DVDs and videogame systems also have gone high-def. Thanks to plasma and LCD technologies, TVs have gone wide and flat, leading us to into the wall TV future of Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451".

Technology is allowing us to escape from the tyranny of broadcast TV schedules. We'll be getting TV not only from cable and satellite companies, but from phone companies through fiber optic networks and even from the Internet. Hard disc-based digital video recorders and DVD recorders slowly but surely are replacing analog VCRs for TV time-shifting. Consumers have started to download TV shows old and new not only to desktop and laptop computers but to portable devices and cell phones. We now can access our DVR and cable or satellite programming via our laptop simply by connecting to the Internet. Satellite radio is challenging older AM and FM businesses, and the iPod and other portable digital music devices is changing the way we buy and listen to music completely.

Wireless technologies will free us from nearly every wired connection from device-to-device connectivity to city-wide mesh networks that will allow anyone to connect to the Internet from anywhere from a multitude of devices. Between cell phones and wireless phones using voice over IP technology, wired phone service soon could be as quaint as tape recording. Ethernet connectivity will become as important as RCA jacks and coaxial cable were to the last generation.

Flash memory space in portable devices continues to rise to enable us to take more music, pictures and video with us. The compact disc is being replaced by online music downloading. Cell phones that already have morphed into cameras now are morphing into digital music players and TV receivers. Digital cameras nearly have replaced film completely. More camcorders use optical or solid state memory to record life's memories.

Cars that run on corn oil. Planes that can take us into space. Can Star Trek's transporter be far behind?