A 1968 view of future communications https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssOELouwBDI (note the gender stereotype - she buys, he pays)
A 1976 highway as envisioned in 1956 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx6keHpeYak Harry On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 4:03 PM, Bob Cook <[email protected]> wrote: > Jed-- > > Thanks for the observations of Clarke--its is an optimistic observation > as are many regarding LENR. The pessimistic ones don't seem to be coming > up as often. > > Bob --an old optimist > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Friday, February 07, 2014 12:19 PM > *Subject:* [Vo]:Clarke describes the Internet in 1972 > > It is often said that people cannot predict future technology, even a few > decades in advance. Some people cannot, but others can. Here is something > Arthur Clarke wrote in 1972. He and others predicted the Internet and many > of its ramifications. > > > . . . It will be a future in which men do much less commuting and more > communicating. Even today, probably 90 percent of the average executive's > business could be performed without leaving home, by the use of equipment > which is already available on an experimental basis. During the next > decade, we will see the evolution of a general-purpose, home-communications > console providing two-way vision, hard-copy readout so that diagrams and > printed material can be exchanged, and a keyboard to allow "conversation" > with the computers and information banks upon which our world will > increasingly depend. > > Before we consider its practicability, let us see what we could do with > such a device. Far more than business discussions and conferences would be > possible; the housewife could go shopping by dialing the catalogue of her > favorite stores; scholars and students would have instant access to any > book or periodical stored in the global electronic library; this minute's > news, continually updated, would be displayed in printed headlines, and any > selected item could be expanded as desired, according to taste. This, > incidentally, raises the possibility of something quite new -- the > "personalized" electronic news service, tailored to the interests of the > individual subscriber! > > Today, such a receiving console would cost tens of thousands of > dollars-and would be useless, because the communications network to service > it does not yet exist. But this network will be built up during the next > decades; one of the great enterprises of the twentieth century will be the > establishment, with the help of satellites, of a planetary "information > grid." It will join the other networks we have developed during the last > hundred and fifty years, and which we now take so much for granted that we > forget their existence, except when they break down. Chronologically, they > are: water, sewerage, gas, electricity, telephone -- and now cable TV, or > video. The forthcoming information grid will absorb the last two. . . . > > > - Jed > >
