Steampunk, by its very definition, lends itself to a great deal of wind-up clinking and clanking noises. This virtual museum of electrochemical & electronic instruments makes quite a racket, no doubt, and the towering, behemoth-like GM FuturLiners must have roared as they zoomed along. Today, the marvelous CrabFu steamtoys provide the clickety-clackety noises, while Tubular Rails, Inc. dreams of a silent, airborne future in transportation.

In less mechanized doings, the Living Tower concept investigates "farming in the z-axis." Perhaps one day we'll take flowers from our vertical farm's produce shop and place it in a Wonder Vase that we take out of an envelope and shape ourselves.