1966 prediction of home computer in 1999 (Video link updated)
MZ says:
(Original link is offline, here's the Google Video:) LinkIt's amazing how accurate these predictions from 1966 were about home computers in 1999, and not just what they can do (or having them at all) but what many people would inevitably use them for most of the time: shopping online, paying bills online, managing our bank accounts, and using an "electronic correspondence machine...which allows for instant communication between individuals anywhere in the world."
Strangely, though this little clip is fascinatingly insightful on the technology tack, they are shockingly fossilized in their view of gender roles in 1999. Behold "father" coming home to his computer to shake is head over the e-bills sent directly to him from "mother's" gleeful shopping at her console (when she wasn't raising their children by video conference).
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Neither of the two people looks very happy at all. The mother is dissatisfied with her shopping options, and the father is worried about their budget. Even the narrator is unenthusiastic.
Am I spoiled by seeing films where the future is wonderful and everyone breaks into song?
I think this is stylized to look retro, but isn't. Those scratch lines on the film are immaculately placed. No credits or info?
Hey, isn't that Wink Martindale as the husband?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wink_Martindale
"the communal service agency" repairs the circuits?
sounds like Web 3.0 to me.
IMHO this looks like a hoax.
notice that he only needs one knob to operate the whole thing!
Mucko said:
Hey, isn't that Wink Martindale as the husband?
Why yes, yes it is. And you've won these fabulous parting gifts! :)
@subatomic_participle: Yeah, this just doesn't ring true. Flat screens? Page-at-a-time printer? I'd love to see some sourcing on this.
Was going to enjoy showing this to my 7th grade class -- currently on the cusp of a two week project on the history of computing, and later to go on to explore how our assumptions about culture (gender roles, anyone?) affect technological evolution.
Unfortunately, link currently goes to "account suspended" page -- perhaps boingboingers slammed it too hard?
Anyone got an alternate host up? My 7th graders will begin their unit on Friday. Thanks, folks!
Heres another link that is valid:
http://www.softwareheadlines.com/modules/planet/view.article.php/215822
tim
mpf... the video is offline ;(
The video is available on Google Video at the following URL...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4796674762025998102
If you can't get at the link, just search for "1999 A.D." on google video.
Thanks #9!
There's something wonderfully ironic and communistic about the phrase "communal service agency."
Hey! Who made these? Pretty please, I really would like to see what predicts they make today!!
Sorry to be so humorless, but....
What they failed to predict in 1966 was not the way gender roles have changed, but how the economy has changed.
Wages have gone down since 1966, while the cost of living has gone up, meaning that now both parents are much more likely to work. And if gender roles have changed that much, why do women still make less than men for doing the same jobs? This is a far more important indicator than who does the shopping.
That was a very attractive hairstyle for 1966.
Anyway: no keyboards! and ... where are my banana plugs!
The blog Paleo-Future posted the kitchen of the future segment from this film, along with some background information, back in April.
Oh, and Paleo-Future also posted the film's introduction that establishes the year as 1999.
Here is a picture Al Gore with amazing similarity!
http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/comments/stop_them_dozers/
There is in fact a keyboard off to the left for those who have mentioned it, however no mouse.
I think the actress playing the wife is in fact Marj Dusay http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0244582/ who is most famous to most geeks as the brain kidnapper in Star Trek's classically bad "Spock's Brain". Picture her saying "BRAIN! BRAIN! WHAT IS BRAIN?"
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/1420/stsb1128rww1.jpg
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/2936/stsb1011rce1.jpg
Oh god, the wires... the shot of the back with a hojillion eighth-inch, banana-plug wires devoid of markings or labels beyond their color is terrifying. The man has a tablet screen and triple-monitor setup. Didn't they assume that in the future, we'd have advanced to the point of hiding the computer's central nervous system from pets, children, and clumsy users? It's like if Intel made a film about computing in the year 2030, and their wristwatch PCs boasted gigantic heatsinks.
For those who worried this might be a hoax, there are more details on the film (and an additional clip) at http://paleo-future.blogspot.com/2007/04/1999-ad-1967.html, apparently it was a short film released by the Philco-Ford corporation in 1967. The paleo-future blog also has a link to a site which sells a DVD called "Yesterday's Tomorrows Today" including this short along with Man-Made Man, Miracle of the Mind and Future Shock (with Orson Wells!):
http://avgeeks-store.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=133&language=en