Reality Check: Youve Heard the Hype. Wired Asked the Experts. Heres the Real Future (Hardwired)

Solar-powered, housecleaning robots, and a Jetson's-like view of the 21st century--these are all fantasies that have fallen by the wayside. Wired asked more than 100 experts to assess the most favored future fantasies of our time, including an AIDS vaccine, contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, a cancer cure, food tablets, and the paperless office. Reality Check reveals the real future. 75 duotone photos.

Reality Check is based on the popular and amusing futurism section in Wired magazine. It makes bold predictions about when we will see some of the wonders suggested by pundits, thinkers, science fiction and today's technological revolution. Wondering when we'll finally see universal picture phones? Electric cars? Contact with extraterrestrial life? Tricorders? Predictions for all of those are here, along with when the two-party system will die and--of grave importance--when we'll all have virtual sex slaves.