Automated subversion... it's not a flying car or a personal jetpack, but it's still more futuristic than most existing uses of technology that I can think of:

• Robot Vandals [NY Press, via Robot Wisdom]
  "There's a lot of techno-utopian discussion about using the Internet as a way of disseminating information," the operative told me. "The problem is that it comes with an off switch... Free speech remains a very real-world phenomenon. Both the Pamphleteer and the GraffitiWriter were developed as a way to allow free speech to occur in public, in real space, where an activist has the ability to get in someone's face, reach people who may not be sympathetic to their cause."
  
  Plus, both robots are operated from a distance, thus keeping the activist out of harm's way.

Interesting. Not something I'd really want to encounter (or encourage, depending on how intrusive the robots get), but still: interesting.

Last week the PBS NewsHour did an in-depth survey of The West Wing, interviewing several advisors and actors; catch transcripts and/or audio here:

• Online NewsHour -- Media Watch: The West Wing [PBS]

Slate's Breakfast Table series last week was pretty entertaining, with Dahlia Lithwick and some guy covering the opening of the Supreme Court's 2000-2001 season:

• Supreme Excitement [Slate]