This week on Earth Beat, things we were promised, but which haven't actually happened. From jetpacks and personal robots to food pills and disaster scenarios, we explore how yesterday’s tomorrow is still the future.

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When 2000 was the future
Writer Ross Sutherland presents A short piece of science fiction, set in the distant year 2000. Hovercraft may be the transport method of choice, but Friends is still filling the TV schedules.

Future predictions
Trend-watcher and the author of Future Files Richard Watson talks to host Marnie Chesterton about the challenges of predicting what will become popular technology in the not-too-distant future.

Voices from the street
We ask people in Amsterdam what they expected from the future, and hear why reality hasn’t lived up to their great expectations.

Where’s my jetpack?
It’s the piece of kit every kid dreamed of owning, but the jetpack never really got off the ground. Gerard Martowlis, one of a small group of people who created a jetpack, talks to Marnie about how he went about building one. Studio guest Richard Watson explains why we aren’t all wearing jetpacks to get around.
Video - footage of Gerard making a tethered test flight.

Where’s my robot?
Whatever happened to the personal robot? The one that was supposed to tidy up, do the dishes and the windows? Marnie speaks with Dylan Evans about why we don’t have an additional electronic member of our households just yet.
Links - Bristol Robotics Labaratory.
ASIMO - The world's most advanced humanoid robot.

Meal in a stick of gum?
Why go to all the trouble of cooking a meal, when you could get all your nutrient requirements met by a couple of easy-to-transport food pills? We did some digging and were slightly side-tracked by a cousin of the food pill that has made the leap from fiction to fact. The chewing gum meal. Sam Bompas has invented a huge array of flavours, from gin and tonic to curry, but can they replace the three-course meal?

Combat food
Patrick Dunne, research scientist in nutritional biochemistry with the US military, has devised food products that keep their men and women fit for action for sustained amounts of time. He explains why food pills don’t offer enough energy.

The underwater nation
Years ago, it was predicted that the lowest-lying countries would have long been underwater by now. But that hasn’t happened. Earth Beat producer Anik See speaks with Jaap Kwadijk, a water management consultant, about how Holland has managed to stay dry, and whether the prediction should be taken seriously. Link - Deltawerken - online resources of information about the Delta Works and water management in the Netherlands.

Richard Watson concludes the programme with why doomsday scenarios matter and makes one final prediction.

Web extra - video - Mac Montandon talks about the inspiration behind his book Jetpack Dreams:

Web extra - Hoverboards
They’re the piece of kit every kid had his or her heart set on – a flat plank of plastic that could literally fly them anywhere. But hoverboards never really got off the ground - until now. French artist Nils Guadagnin has come a step closer to making dreams reality, with a hoverboard that works using powerful magnets in the base which repel other magnets built into the ground.

The result is a hoverboard that floats and stays in the air even when given a push. But unfortunately for Back to the Future fans, it can’t actually carry the weight of a person. "It wasn’t ever the goal to be able to step on it," says Guadagnin. "I just wanted to create something that could levitate."

"But then I started to receive emails from people all over the world who are trying to build a hoverboard that works. It’s quite exciting to imagine you could make a real one." You can see pictures of Nils Guadagnin’s hoverboard below.

Click on image for slideshow