The other day I watched one of those short movies that Microsoft and other big technology companies put out every so often.

You know the ones: They're all about the wonderful things we're going to be able to do tomorrow.

I notice that all these videos seem to have certain features in common.

Everyone seems very happy, for one thing.

That's good. It looks like they're in a happy place. It's probably because none of their gadgets seems to crash.

And people are always using those Tom Cruise Minority Report displays - you know the thing, where you wave your hands around in mid-air moving things hither and thither (eyeballs, if I recall, from the movie.)

As someone once pointed out, try this. Just for a couple of minutes. Wave your hands around as if you're manipulating three-dimensional files.

Tiring, isn't it?

The other thing I notice is the absence of wires. No cables at all.

That has to be good, though we've been promised this for some time.

We were told our gadgets would all be hooked up by a total absence of cabling. Oh, and our phones etc. could all be charged without having to plug them in.

If your desk looks anything like mine, this day is some way off. Mine looks like a pit of dead snakes.

Another thing you'll notice in these futuristic visions is a lack of keyboard. Seems that in the future we won't need those things. Instead, we'll be talking to our machines or tapping on displays.

Which reminds me, the Microsoft video was full of cute, ethnically diverse children communicating happily with each other by drawing on glass, their drawings coming to life and their words translated effortlessly into the language of the kid on the other side.

Cute. Or as one poster to the web page commented: That's a lot of finger smudges for teacher to clean off.

I'm not dissing this vision. I think something like it is the future. But I think these utopian visions mislead us.

The future isn't gadgets on a plate, all making our lives more bearable.

The future is now: Us grappling with technology that someone foisted on us.

I remember hearing on a radio show in 1978 that microchips would dominate the world and we wouldn't have to work for a living.

Well, the first bit is right, but the second has fallen somewhat short.

The problem is that if we allow our future to be sketched out for us by software and hardware manufacturers, we've learned nothing.

The thing is, technology doesn't just suddenly appear. It comes along slowly, gingerly, and we, believe it or not, have a say in how we use it.

That sends the people in coats scurrying back to their Tom Cruise drawing boards.

Take Twitter, Facebook, or even Microsoft Windows. All have, in their different ways, been forced recently to alter their approach based on how customers use their products.

Twitter, for example, was supposed to be a sort of status update service. Now it's a network of ad hoc communities sharing information, a world of search faster than Google.

Facebook has tried to dredge our private data to make money. Each time, it's been shot down by users.

And Microsoft last month quietly ditched some of the sillier limitations of their Windows Starter Edition (readers may recall a column on this a few weeks back) after a public outcry.

The point: We are not just passive consumers of this stuff.

Not all of us are just waiting around to be spoon-fed a Jetsons lifestyle.

Look at websites like UserVoice and GetSatisfaction, which allow manufacturers to find out what their customers really think. And, in the case of UserVoice, to vote for what features are added in future versions.

Join in, if you care what your future looks like.

In fact, a lot of this technology is already here to try out and help shape.

And I'd encourage you to do so.

Microsoft has something called PhotoSynth, which is a very cool glimpse into how photos can be stitched together to create an extraordinary three-dimensional collage.

Speech technology - the ability of a computer to understand what you're saying, and either interpret the commands or take dictation - has been around for a while, and is getting better all the time.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a great place to start for this.

There are lots of other ways to interact with your computer beyond just keyboard and mouse: I've long been playing around with pens, for example, that convert my awful handwriting to digital text (more on this next time.)

Or a device from Logitech called 3DConnexion, which looks a paperweight but is in fact a sort of three-dimensional mouse. Hook it up to Google Earth and you can float up and down, sideways, in and out across the globe like you're flying.

Makes the mouse pretty dull by comparison.

And of course there's touch, which the iPhone does very well, and Microsoft promise is going to be super wonderful in Windows 7.

I'm not suggesting you rush out and buy all this stuff.

But what I am saying is that it's our future too, and we shouldn't allow someone whose goal is to sell us more stuff to define it for us.

Unless, of course, you won't mind spending your evenings cleaning sticky finger smudges off an interactive glass display.

Not to be reproduced without written permission from the writer. Jeremy Wagstaff is a commentator on technology. He can be found online at jeremywagstaff.com or via email at jeremy@loose-wire.com.

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