Even if you had free run of any skybox in Madison Square Garden, you still wouldn’t see half the action that you will in your own living room, one day soon, on a large-screen holographic television. Without ever leaving your chair, you’ll be poised to watch each play unfold from whatever perspective you choose, gazing into the depths of your TV.

There are plenty of great ideas for the future out there. Predicting which ones will become more than ideas, which technologies will come storming into your life and flip it upside down—that’s dangerous business. But it sure is a rush. And it’s exactly what we’ve done in the pages that follow: We homed in on the most jaw-dropping research projects happening in five core realms and extrapolated just how—and when—they’ll come to exist.