On 14 Dec 2007 at 1:00, Christopher D. Green wrote: > > Every now and again the futurists get it right. Check out this film form the > late 1950s "House of the Future" which strikingly correctly > predicted e-mail, internet shopping, computer-mediated education, and > a bunch of other stuff we now take for granted. It was all predicted to > be in place by 1999. > > http://cbs2.com/video/[EMAIL PROTECTED] >
I'd make it somewhat later than that. "Four decades ago" would date it as 1967, not too shabby but less prescient than if it were from the late 1950s. A quick Google shows one website claiming that Honeywell marketed a "Kitchen computer" (which included a cutting board ) in 1966, and as early as 1950 something like a home computer called the "Simon" (see http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml) was available. "House of the Future" didn't do too well in predicting liberation for women from traditional household chores, though. The real champ at this sort of thing is Jules Verne, especially his lost novel _Paris in the 21st centrury_, written in 1863 but not published until 1989, which predicted Paris of the 1960s. Apparently he envisioned feminism, e-mail, burglar alarms, mass-produced higher education (including the closure of Humanities departments), "cars, fax machines, the city's elaborate metro and train system, gigantic cargo-carrying vessels... the Eiffel Tower" (built 1889), not to mention " a world where everyone is literate but doesn't read", "entire forests are not only used for heating but also for paper", the rise of English as the language of science, buildings going as high as 12 stories, and the TV sitcom, with fake audience response even. Now there's a man who knew something about predicting. See: http://tinyurl.com/252w8s (New Scientist) http://jv.gilead.org.il/sfs/taves.71.html Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---
