Clearly pointless!

Sometimes I think we're on the wrong track about the parts of the future that are worth inventing, do you know what I mean? Huh? No? Yeah, that was rather vague.

Above: our grim future...today!

Pictured: a transparent screen.
Not pictured: why.

What I'm talking about is this. And I know you're not going to click on the link, but last month the computer manufacturer Lenovo showed off a transparent laptop at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. It is, by all accounts, exactly what it sounds like: a laptop with a clear plastic panel in place of a traditional screen, and your browser window and apps or whatever are displayed on that. Cool looking, yes, but it does beg the question: why would anyone want this. 

Um, ow? Did nobody ever
think this all the way through?

Because the future, that's why. In the same way that playing Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" lets an audience know that a scene is set in the 1940's or blimps hanging over a contemporary city means parallel universe, clear computer screens are a visual cue that establish the future. And since hover cars and jet packs have their own practicality problems--namely three dimensional car accidents and setting one's ass on fire--clear computer screens do, I suppose, suggest the future, right?

Look at that expression of hard work and
creativity, obscured by some primitive, non-
transparent laptop screen. What a waste.

But are they a good idea? Everything I've read about them boils down to "neat, but weird." It seems like it'd be hard to read anything on it, and gone is any semblance of privacy. I mean, obviously one shouldn't be looking up objectionable material in public or at work, and this thing would make it even harder to get away with, but that's basically it. Like, other than giving everyone at the coffee shop a clearer view of your face as you pretend to do work, this doesn't bring much to the table.

It's cool, and that's all. I'm not criticizing, I'm just suggesting that of all the things science fiction uses to tell us it's the future, this is probably the laziest. Don't get me wrong, parts of the 21st century have been spot on. The deteriorating climate, the casually totalitarian political figures, it's a dystopia to be sure. I just wish they'd hurry up with cold fusion and replicators, you know what I mean?

What I'm saying is: get on this.