10 Futuristic Gadgets From 'The Jetsons' That We Actually Have Today

When you were a kid watching The Jetsons, you probably found yourself saying "I wish I had that."

They had robot maids, jet packs, and basically everything you could ever hope for, but it all felt like it was stuff that was so far in the future that we would never get to experience it. However, looking back at all those things we thought were sooooo cool when we were kids, a lot of them are actually available in one way or another.

It's crazy how many things seem totally normal to us now, but even just 30 years ago were absolutely out of this world.

1. A flat screen TV? Unheard of!

Back when we were kids our TVs weighed three times as much as we did - even though the screens were only 15" tall.

But Jane had this big flat screen that we were all jealous of. It was so big, but still took up no space at all because it was so thin.

Now, it's weird if you don't own a flat screen TV. I don't even think they make the old tube TVs anymore!

2. Communicating on a watch? Insanity!

It's a tech device that was so impressive on shows like The Jetsons and Knight Rider, but never in a million years would we have thought that we could have a screen on our watch that would let us see images or make calls.

Now, everyone can buy an Apple Watch at a Walmart and hook it up to their smartphone in less than ten minutes. It's not even hard to do.

3. A machine that will vacuum for you? Unbelievable!

I'm not even talking about the robot maid yet, this was just a little vacuum that helped get the house in order when Rosie was doing other stuff. It seemed too good to be true, but now you can just run out to Costco and grab a Roomba.

Sure, they are still a little expensive, but you can just set them to vacuum when you're not home and then come home to a perfectly tidy house.

4. Reading the newspaper on a screen? Never in a million years!

George reads the news on a big screen, but how could he do that when the only way to read the news is with the newspaper?

Well, we all seemed to like his way better, because the number of newspapers continue to dwindle as people read more and more of their news online.

5. Seeing the face of the person on the phone? I could never!

Video chats were the dream tech back in the day. Maybe because we didn't have the internet so calling someone was our only option, but now we all talk all the time.

But we don't just talk, we can video chat in a bunch of different ways, so you are never really that far away from the people you love.

6. Tiny flying devices? Not in my lifetime!

Elroy has this little personalized flying device he can fly around in and oh boy, did we all want one too.

While we aren't exactly there yet, we can buy little drones that you can zoom around in the sky. They always have cameras on them so it's almost like you get to fly up there. I'm sure one day in the not-too-distant future we will be able to jump into our own little pod though.

7. Intelligent Robots? In the house? Not possible!

Rosie was the real dream when watching The Jetsons. Who out there can say they wouldn't love to have a robot maid help them out around the house? No one. That's who.

While we don't have fully sentient beings that follow us around cleaning our dishes and dusting our house, we can get a bunch of robotic devices.

Think of all of those "smart home" systems like "Alexa" or the "Google Assistant" you can get that can answer all your questions and automate your home. There are light bulbs you can control from your phone, thermostats that you can control from anywhere in the world, and even cameras that let you see who is ringing your doorbell without moving.

Our houses are basically 97% of the way to being completely controlled by robots and you've got to admit it's pretty awesome.

8. An alarm that talks to you? Why on earth would you need that?!

George's alarm clock can talk, and at the time that seemed absolutely insane. Why do you need your alarm to talk when it could just get a regular buzzer to encourage you up?

Well, obviously those buzzer noises are horrendous, and we realized that it didn't need to be like that. Instead, we could wake up to a soothing voice that isn't going to startling us out of our dreams.

There are so many kinds of alarms now, and with our smartphones we have unlimited options. Any sound you can download can be turned into an alarm.

9. A camera that you swallow? That's unsafe!

When George has to swallow a weird little camera for his medical checkup, we thought it was absolutely insane. How could they even think of taking pictures inside the human body?

Well now, these are actually real. There are a few different ways that doctors can put cameras into your body, including one that is a pill that you swallow. The images then show the doctors what is actually going on in your body, and it's made diagnosing illnesses a whole lot easier.

10. Travel around in outer space? Not in our lifetimes!

When the Jetson family wanted to run around and explore planets they could do it without really much thought. But for us, space travel was reserved for the elite astronauts that we could only dream of becoming.

Well, decades later space travel isn't as insane as it once seemed. There are a lot of different options, albeit expensive ones, that would allow regular people to head into space.

So far we can't go walking on the moon or anything, but we can go experience what it's like in zero gravity which is on the right track!

While we may not be living in the future that the Jetson's had, I think we can all agree we're doing just fine when it comes to technology.

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Sources - Simplemost / Entrepreneur / Diply / Screenrant / Little Things