Click on the thumbnails below for a closer look at 2026’s version of the educational pet Grow-a-Frog.What do you think our world will look like in 10, 20, or 100 years? We need your help creating a new artifact from the future for every issue of Wired magazine. Each month, we’ll propose a scenario and ask for your prognostications. Sketch out your vision, then return here to upload your ideas, see other submissions, and vote for your favorites. Check out http://archive.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/found/found_1709 this month’s challenge. Photo: Todd Tankersley; children: Susanna Bothe; raptor: Getty Images
We envision these blasts from the past clawing their way into hearts of kids everywhere by the year 2026. Like the Grow-a-Frog kits of yesteryear, Grow-a-Nanoraptor comes with everything you need to raise a pet—a mail-in coupon for an egg, an incubator, and food.
In 2003, molecular biologists finished charting the http://www.genome.gov/10001772 human genome. The http://mammoth.psu.edu/ woolly mammoth has since been sequenced. Next giant leap: dino DNA, a remnant ripe for reanimation.
Don’t fear the raptor. Do, however, keep an eye on it. Unsupervised, a member of the species will undoubtedly raise its talons and, in the process, shed sofas, tykes, and other valuables into Jurassic oblivion.
Nanoraptors do almost everything dogs do. Unlike canines, though, reanimated dinos function both as pets and teaching tools.
Lab technicians have capped Grow-a-Nanoraptor’s height trajectory at 2 feet, making it safe and manageable for kids. Dangle a cat toy in front of its serrated teeth for maximal fun.
A user’s manual lays out some quick tips for adapting Nanoraptors to the modern world.
Grow-a-Nanoraptor is engineered to stop growing when it reaches 2 feet tall, but if you overfeed it, there’s no telling how big it’ll get. And if that happens, whatever you do, don’t release it into the wild.
Dehydrated lizard innards condense a Nanoraptor’s nutritional intake. And they’re organic, of course.
A combo incubator-tank provides comfortable quarters for growing Nanoraptors. Before hatch time, a countdown appears on a side panel. And an electronic thermometer helps regulate the grassy microclimate.
