A Look At the "Information Superhighway," As It Looked In 1985 241
jfruh writes "AT&T's video library is a treasure trove of future-looking films from the past, and this one is no exception. Combining what might be the first on-film use of the phrase 'information superhighway' with predictions of Siri-like services and sweet '80s computer graphics, this offers a valuable look at how close we came to our past's future."
Re:Not bad, but they were dead wrong about one thi (Score:5, Insightful)
They (AT&T, Xerox, IBM, and multinational companies of similar stature at the time) thought that the global information infrastructure would be centralized, monolithic and closed. Businesses and consumers would have to choose a provider that would provide the whole enchilada.
Not surprising. They figured "the internet" would be run like cable TV... hell Cable TV providers are still trying to make that happen.
Reminds me of Ontario Science Centre circa 1975 (Score:5, Insightful)
The Ontario Science Centre in the mid-1970s was wicked cool. The glimpses into the future were all there for you to touch and play with. (The Philips Coffee Machine was one of my favorites). Sadly, science museums have devolved into environmentalism and global warming preaching which by comparison is about as much fun as watching the organic, free-range, fair-trade grass grow.
Re:Where's China? (Score:4, Insightful)
And the 90's was Japan's fall. Oddly enough if the 2000's were China's rise, this decade will probably be China's fall.
Re:Welcome to the Information Age (Score:3, Insightful)
3K which was almost enough to pay for 4 years of university at the time.
Re:The strange world of futurist (Score:4, Insightful)
Hardly ever do I see stationary machines doing useful work. Mostly what I see are moving machines engaged in meaningless activity that has no application in the real world
Ever seen an NC mill, lathe, waterjet, etc?
Re:The strange world of futurist (Score:4, Insightful)
Not sure if that typo was intentional or not, but you did hit on a big issue. The world of the future they envisioned was also one where they still controlled all content distribution.....They never really thought about the implications of people being able to store and transmit massive video libraries on their own....
Look at this in context it makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
1985 was only 1 year after the Ma Bell breakup and while the Macintosh was out IBM still dominated the PC business. So when you look at this in the context of the times it makes sense that they would think the network and infrastructure would be closed because that was the way things were during the time period. I am glad they aren't like that though I think with AT&T reformed and Apple controlling the whole experiance things might go back to the "Ma Bell" days :(
Re:Welcome to the Information Age (Score:5, Insightful)
It did provide a gateway to it, and when I was on it in 1993, I found out after a year that it wasnt the internet like I thought. Instead AoL was nothing but a controlled network with a filtered and censored gateway to the real internet.
Then i got a real ISP and enjoyed freedom ever since.