From Future Cities by Kenneth Gatland and David Jefferis (1979)
From Future Cities by Kenneth Gatland and David Jefferis (1979)
Legend
- Giant-size TV. Based on the designs already available, this one has a super-bright screen for daylight viewing and stereo sound system.
- Electronic video movie camera, requires no film, just a spool of tape. Within ten years video cameras like this could be replaced by 3-D holographic recorders.
- Flat screen TV. No longer a bulky box, TV has shrunk to a thickness of less than five centimetres. This one is used to order shopping via a computerised shopping centre a few kilometres away. The system takes orders and indicates if any items are not in stock.
- Video disc player used for recording off the TV and for replaying favourite films.
- Domestic robot rolls in with drinks. One robot, the Quasar, is already on sale in the USA. Reports indicate that it may be little more than a toy however, so it will be a few years before 'Star Wars' robots tramp through our homes.
- Mail slot. By 1990, most mail will be sent in electronic form. Posting a letter will consist of placing it in front of a copier in your home or at the post office. The electronic read-out will be flashed up to a satellite, to be beamed to its destination. Like many other electronic ideas, the savings in time and energy could be enormous.
This is actually fairly accurate. Some of the guesses at how the technology would actually work are hilariously bad, but that also would have been extremely hard to guess at the time.
Even down to them having a stack of records in a room full of more modern technology.
Presumably video discs:
- Video disc player used for recording off the TV and for replaying favourite films.
The solar panels amaze me.
It also predicted bad haircuts and bum clothes (age of corona).
The most ridiculous thing on this is probably the aspect ratio on that TV lol
That guy's filming the building across the street, at least they knew perverts would still exist, just didn't expect it to be so easy.
- Giant-size TV. Based on the designs already available, this one has a super-bright screen for daylight viewing and stereo sound system.
- Electronic video movie camera, requires no film, just a spool of tape. Within ten years video cameras like this could be replaced by 3-D holographic recorders.
- Flat screen TV. No longer a bulky box, TV has shrunk to a thickness of less than five centimetres. This one is used to order shopping via a computerised shopping centre a few kilometres away. The system takes orders and indicates if any items are not in stock.
- Video disc player used for recording off the TV and for replaying favourite films.
- Domestic robot rolls in with drinks. One robot, the Quasar, is already on sale in the USA. Reports indicate that it may be little more than a toy however, so it will be a few years before 'Star Wars' robots tramp through our homes.
- Mail slot. By 1990, most mail will be sent in electronic form. Posting a letter will consist of placing it in front of a copier in your home or at the post office. The electronic read-out will be flashed up to a satellite, to be beamed to its destination. Like many other electronic ideas, the savings in time and energy could be enormous.
Given what I remember of '79 (was only 8), this seems well thought out! Hell, the Buck Rodgers guy even has a wireless remote. Not sure I'd ever seen one or if they even existed.
The robot is the only thing totally off the wall. But back then, we thought domestic robots would be cheap and useful enough to be ubiquitous. Be hilarious if they had predicted a Roomba instead.
They seem to have overestimated hardware (5cm flatscreens in the 90s? Eh... 3D Holographic replacing normal cameras? No way), but underestimated miniaturization and bandwidth. An early BlackBerry could do everything pictured save shopping, and that would come soon. Yet daylight displays are only getting common now 30 years later, and robots competent enough to be worth using is a rabbit hole as deep as fusion.
Definitely a saner-than-average take though. I'd rate 75% on predictions, and only 15-ish years late.
Crazy shit I have that book in Spanish!
Funny how we predicted videophones, then nobody wanted one. Then we got cell phones and video sharing. Most don't like it, some do. Then we got Zoom (and Skype and Teams, etc.) for business phones and meetings, and most everyone is on screen.
So despite being totally unwanted at first, we've come full circle.
At least part of it was the extra cost of data for early cell phones, and the UI clunkiness of sending a video. But now everyone has GB plans and the UI is simplified.
Good thing that they finally added sound to the telephone
I cant wait for people in 2050 to watch episodes of 'Black Mirror'
I had the phone one I was a kid but it took C batteries and only played pacman