Check out these new NYC subway signs forbidding hoverboards on the train

Rafi Letzter / Tech Insider

There's no question that we're living in the future. After all, we've got self-driving cars, computers in our pockets that talk to us, and private spaceflight.

The only question is, which future are we living in? Is it a "Star Trek" future that's pristine and hopeful? Or is it more like the dingy, lawless "Blade Runner" timeline?

I've suspected it was the latter ever since I ran across some men in my neighborhood sucking on glowing blue e-cigarettes and using a small, whirring drone to chase a spike-collared pit bull through the vapors.

And the fact that New York City has felt the need to ban hoverboards recently seems like further evidence in the "Blade Runner" direction. Check out these signs that my colleague Chris Snyder spotted on the subway this morning:

Rafi Letzter / Tech Insider

There's a good reason for the rule: it turns out these newfangled scooters have a bad habit of destroying themselves in fiery explosions due to battery problems. Hoverboards are also banned on dozens of college campuses, in the nations of Denmark and Dubai, and in the Minnesota Twins clubhouse. Amazon has stopped selling them and you can't take them on many commercial airlines, either.

Still, if that sign had shown up in a science fiction movie five years ago you would have snorted at the corny joke (and probably asked yourself why something called a hoverboard has wheels.) It looks more like something from a techno-futurist art project than a necessary warning on your morning commute.

Here's a closer look:

Rafi Letzter / Tech Insider

Now, if we were on the "Star Trek" timeline, where everybody follows the rules, there would be no need for the signs. Plus everything would be a lot more clean and shiny.

But we're not. Here's proof, courtesy of another colleague, Antonio Villas-Boas:

Rafi Letzter / Tech Insider

See that brushed-gold danger machine on brazen display? Your hoverboard-stifling rules clearly have no power here, Metropolitan Transit Authority.

While the hoverboard ban began January 27, the MTA, which oversees New York City's subway, told Tech Insider the signs only went up last week. So it's not clear that the man in this picture would have had a chance to learn about the rules by the time Antonio took this photo in the middle of February.

In either case, this futuristic scofflaw is either a great American hero or villain, depending on your point of view.

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