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05 Dec 2006 11:56 am

The Future - From the Past

Here's a fascinating montage of 1993 AT&T ads predicting a technological future.

A reader comments:

It's really interesting how their vision of the future included so many things that actually did come to pass. Except AT&T brought us none of them.

The video file itself came on a CD-ROM I got in 1993 called "Newsweek Interactive". It was a CD-ROM based interactive multimedia experience; a relic of a time just as computers matured but just before the web. It was supposed to be the first issue of a CD-based edition of the magazine. Some of the technologies they showcase came about a couple years later (e.g. EZ-Pass) and some are only now becoming commonplace (e.g. In-dash navigational systems).

One of my favorite parts is right at the beginning, when the kid reading a book over the network is staring at a screen image of the actual book with a video feed pointed at it. Keep in mind, when these ads were made, Web browsers were still a year or two away.

If other readers have YouTubes of old video that predicts the future shockingly well, send them in and I'll post. Misfires are also welcome, of course.

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