Spaced Odder, See?

Now we're in the space year 2001. Where are the moonbases, the orbiting space stations, the laser weapons, the Mars expeditions, the hovercars, the unusually cut suits, the complete-meals-in-pill-form, the teleporters, the personal communicators, the dance music that sounds like bleeps and bloops? Well, two out of ten ain't bad.

We've got hand-held computers, but not the kind that can undertake a conversation. We've got microwaves, Dyson vacuum cleaners, DVD players, MiniDiscs, digital telly and radio, digital cameras, and improvements to many household appliances that we didn't have 30 years ago, but how essential are any of them?