Back To The Future Day Just Got Even Better

Neil Degrasse Tyson is today's Bill Nye The Science Guy, so when he takes to Twitter, we listen. And at approximately 9:30 a.m. EST, we knew something wondrous was about to happen when Tyson tweeted this particular message to his followers: "As the Geekiverse knows well, today is 'Back to the Future II Day.' So let’s do this..." In honor of today being the exact day that Marty and Doc travel to in the sequel, NDT has engulfed himself in a Back to the Future II-themed storm, tweeting screenshot after screenshot of gadgets featured in the film and noting whether or not they exist today. For a sci-fi movie from 1989, BTTFII got quite a few things right about what technology we'd have in 2015. It seems like we hear about a new hoverboard prototype every week (even though we won't count it until we're doing kickflips with one ourselves). Beyond that, the movie predicted the prevalence of video chatting, digital cameras, and even thumbprint locks. Sadly, we've yet to see the double-necktie come into vogue, and it feels like we'll never get those flying cars we were promised. For now, we'll just have to keep practicing our surprised reaction for when these items of the future actually arrive — even though, thanks to Marty and Doc's adventures, we knew they were coming all along. Below, check out some of our favorite observations from NDT. If you need us, we'll be throwing out our extra fax machines.

(We're really glad the double-fax-machine and double-necktie concepts never caught on, too, Neil.)