How to live like Marty McFly
How to live in the future
Happy Back to the Future Day
It's Back to the Future day! This is the date that Marty and Doc leapt forward in time in Back to the Future II, and when it was released in 1989 the film showed a vibrant and exciting futuristic October 21, 2015.
Now that the date has arrived how easy is it to live as if we're in the future that Marty and Doc flew their DeLorean into?
It's actually surprisingly easy and we'll show you how you can live like Marty McFly in 2015.
Travel by junk fuelled vehicles
In Back to the Future II, Doc uses junk to power his DeLorean, and while the majority of our vehicles in 2015 still rely on petrol, you can get around in transportation that's powered by waste.
If you're in Bath or Bristol in the UK you can now ride the "Bio-Bus" which is powered by human and food waste, which is turned into biomethane gas.
Pay for a taxi with your thumbprint
Series bad guy Biff takes a taxi in Back to the Future II and instead of paying with cash, he simply pressed his thumb onto a scanner.
Thanks to biometric fingerprint scanners on our smartphones, along with services such as Apple Pay, it's becoming increasingly commonplace to pay for things using just our fingerprints.
Taxi apps like Uber also allow us to book and pay for taxi rides without having to pay in cash.
Police officers in LED message-displaying uniforms
Want to relive a classic scene from the movie in 2015? Simply pass out in an ally way, and when you get picked up by the police, insist they wear clothes that can display flashing messages, just like in the film (please don't do this in real life).
CuteCircuit is a website that specialises in fashion that allows you to send and display messages via Twitter on your clothes, so you can still experience a bit of the 2015 shown in Back to the Future II.
Slap on some Nike self-lacing shoes
One of the coolest scenes that blew our minds back in '89 was when Marty McFly put on a pair of Nike MAG shoes that fitted themselves to his feet and tied their own laces automatically.
Amazingly this could actually be possible in 2015, with rumours swirling that Nike is planning on releasing self-lacing Nike MAG shoes to celebrate today's date.
While we're still waiting for the shoes, yesterday Nike raised the hype levels by tweeting from its official Twitter account to Michael J. Fox, the actor who played Marty McFly, saying "see you tomorrow".
Peel your face off to get rejuvenated
Eeew. If you saw Doc Brown peeling off his face in the future to reveal a fresher, rejuvenated, mug underneath and thought "ooh I'd like to try that", then A) you're weird, and B) you can sort of do that.
Chemical Peels are a treatment that uses a chemical solution that's applied to the skin which then blisters. This is then peeled off revealing skin that should be smoother and less wrinkled than the old skin.
Get videoed on a flying drone
As Biff is arrested in the 2015 of Back to the Future II a flying drone from USA Today records his arrest.
Luckily you don't have to go and get arrested in the real 2015 to have a flying drone record what you're doing, as there are plenty of camera-toting drones, such as the DJI Phantom 3 Professional available to buy yourself.
Watch a 3D movie
One of the most iconic scenes in Back to the Future II is when a 3D holographic shark (advertising the thankfully never released Jaws 19) scares Marty McFly.
In the real 2015 it's incredibly easy to go watch a movie in 3D, and new cinema technology that uses laser projectors has been developed with the aim of making 3D movies cleaner, crisper and brighter than ever before.
Replace your windows with a TV screen
Bored of the view outside your window? Instead of staring out at that concrete multi-storey carpark, wouldn't it be nice to instead see a beautiful mountain vista, just like in Back to the Future II?
Ultrathin and flexible televisions have been shown off by manufacturers in trade shows for a while now, so hopefully we should see it coming to products we actually can buy soon.
Ultra high definition 4K resolution screens are also becoming more popular, and with talk of 8K displays on the horizon we should soon see TV screens that can almost make us believe we're looking through a window to another world.
Wear a pair of smartglasses
Marty McFly's kid pops on some smart glasses in 2015 in the movie, and we can do the same right now in the real 2015.
Although you'd be hard pushed to find smartglasses made by JVC (as shown in the film), other tech companies, such as Google and its Google Glass, have been making this scene a reality.
Video chat with people around the world
In Back to the Future II we see the future Marty McFly chat to his boss via video, and this is probably the easiest thing to replicate in the real 2015.
All you need is a webcam and a video calling service such as Skype or Google Hangouts to get going.
Send faxes
In the 2015 of Back to the Future II people send faxes – a lot of them – to each other.
If you really want to feel like you're in the amazing technological wonderland shown in the film then you'll probably be able to find a fax machine somewhere. Isn't living in the future amazing?
Senior Computing editor
Matt (Twitter) is TechRadar's Senior Computing editor. Having written for a number of publications such as PC Plus, PC Format, T3 and Linux Format, there's no aspect of technology that Matt isn't passionate about, especially computing and PC gaming. If you're encountering a problem or need some advice with your PC or Mac, drop him a line on Twitter.