Source: illustration from the 1979 children’s book Future Cities by Kenneth Gatland and David Jefferis - Ретрофутуризм. Retrofuturism — LiveJournal

Legend
  1. Giant-size TV. Based on the designs already available, this one has a super-bright screen for daylight viewing and stereo sound system.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Video disc player used for recording off the TV and for replaying favourite films.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

Book info: Future Cities The World of the Future: Homes & Living Into the 21st Century by Gatland, Kenneth & David Jefferis - 1979

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    11 months ago
    1. Giant-size TV. Based on the designs already available, this one has a super-bright screen for daylight viewing and stereo sound system.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Video disc player used for recording off the TV and for replaying favourite films.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.

    • Tlaloc_Temporal
      4·
      11 months ago

      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.