Star Wars May Not Just Be Science Fiction Anymore (No Spoilers)

1) Droids: fair enough. But Star Wars didn't really invent the concept of androids, so I don't know how much credit it should get for that. Might as well mention Softbank's robot Pepper[0], if only to mention that the terms of service apparently explicitly say you can't have sex with it. Certinaly, intelligent software agents seem to be more commonplace, which isn't surprising since you don't have to worry about having those lumber around the real world.

2) Lightsabers: Probably only marginally possible if you entirely abandon the premise of having an energy weapon altogether, and certainly that the "blade" has to be made of light. The closest thing reality has, and maybe can have, might look like a cutting torch.[1]

3) Tractor Beams: Probably impossible as envisioned by science fiction - a beam of energy that pulls you towards it, rather than pushing, which would be more reasonable. Manipulating some medium like air or water might work, but shouldn't count. Although at small scales, where you can harness the Casimir effect, it might be feasible[2].

4) Holograms: Everything like the "Tupac Shakur" and "Hatsune Miku" concert holograms seem to be images projected onto a surface, but the technology to create and manipulate points of light as an actual 3d matrix does apparently exist[3], but are nowhere near ready for shipping with HoloChess.

5) The Force: Simple tricks and nonsense.

[0]https://www.aldebaran.com/en/a-robots/who-is-pepper

[1]http://www.gamezone.com/news/someone-made-a-real-life-lights...

[2]http://www.livescience.com/48414-tractor-beam-pulls-in-parti...

[3]http://qz.com/438880/scientists-have-created-3d-holograms-th...

So yeah - any possibly valid technological ideas in Star Wars would seem to be pretty generic for the genre, and the unique concepts are, unsurprisingly just magitech.

I want a droid...

Tractor Beams are so much cooler than droids.