The Internet In 1969: How We Imagined The Future (VIDEO)

So back in 1969, what did we think the Internet would be like? In case you've ever wondered, this video reveals how we imagined the Internet in 1969.

'Fingertip shopping will be one of the many homemakers' conveniences,' the narrator explains as a trim, well-coiffed woman peruses a selection of sweaters on her 'console.'

The camera cuts to a businessman before a series of boxy computer monitors. 'What the wife selects on her console will be paid for by the husband at his counterpart counsel. All bills and transactions will be carried out electronically,' says the narrator.

The 1969 vision also imagines a sort of elementary email: 'Also at his disposal is an electronic correspondence machine or 'home post office' which allows for instant written electronic communication between individuals anywhere in the world.'

How right were they?

WATCH: (h/t: Kottke.org)

Comments

[AAKAlan]

02:52 PM on 04/06/2010

Actually, this is pretty impressive.

Considering the date, they certainly got the concepts right, though the implementations were wedded to the technology of the time, in which video was the state-of-the-art.

Of course, they got the hardware wrong, but note the ton of plugged cables coming out of the back of the units.... unfortunately, even with bluetooth and wi-fi, the dreadful cable-clutter still hasn't gone away - from either our computers or home entertainment systems.

Hopefully, someday....

[MsVella]

01:58 PM on 04/06/2010

Lol I love how sexist this vid is!

[RTIII]

10:18 AM on 04/06/2010

"and alerts the communal service agency for replacement."

THAT was the funniest line of the whole video!

But the MOST funny thing was that the KEYBOARD was missing - you know qwerty! By then the electronic version was long in existence...
.

[ZombyWoof]

05:13 PM on 04/03/2010

I've always found it amazing how futurists and forward looking Sci-fi both get so much right yet so wrong.

[LMPE]

03:18 PM on 04/03/2010

From behind I at first thought that the mom was Elizabeth Montgomery.

[simpleperson]

09:18 PM on 04/05/2010

Tipper Gore....since Al invented it.

[revue]

03:04 PM on 04/06/2010

you're a idiot.

[Yabutydu]

11:49 AM on 04/03/2010

I think this is amazing but find it hard to give it credence for being 1969. Late 70's perhaps.

[strayling]

03:03 PM on 04/03/2010

Nah, it's definitely late 60s. There are visual cues all over, from the clothes they're wearing to the patchboard cables and microfiche-style displays.

[Lordemil]

06:42 PM on 04/05/2010

not late 70s, by late 70s we already had the TRS-80 III and the apple ][+

[tribal sovereignty]

11:29 AM on 04/03/2010

They forgot to mention internet #1 use: p0rn

[keysbreezin]

11:03 AM on 04/03/2010

And the Communal Service Agency will be there sometime between 8 & 5.

[teeniechino]

11:30 AM on 04/03/2010

That's hysterical!

[Rarian Rakista]

09:44 PM on 04/03/2010

Its like the movie Brazil with bell bottoms.

[DJH901]

10:37 AM on 04/03/2010

I remember DOS, and windows 3.11, and OS2 (IBM) how about the old Commodore 64!

[Artos]

11:11 AM on 04/03/2010

I still have my old Commodore 64 and it still works too. I could still use it if I felt like it. I still remember In 1978 when I took a computer class and they were still teaching how to use the punch cards that you had to feed into a machine. Weird stuff. Though at the same time we also had real computers in a computer lab and I used them to help myself learn math. What I also recall is a show back in the sixties that Walter Cronkite used to host that was called something like "The Twentieth Century" and in one segment he actually showed these very thin TV/Computers that were larger than some LCDs we have now which were mounted on the wall, and you could use them for watching shows or as a computer with WEB cam capability so that you could converse with people like Library researchers or Government officials. It was very interesting and farsighted. I used to wonder how come it took so long to actually reach that level until now. Seems kind of odd that it took so long.

[LREKing]

11:27 AM on 04/03/2010

I think it was Isaac Asimov who said that we always overesitmate what we can do in the short run, and underestimate what we can do in the long run.

[RTIII]

10:27 AM on 04/06/2010

I loved Commodore, but the 64 was a HUGE disappointment. I was waiting for Commodore's new computer but they, in my opinion, got the 64 very wrong. What they needed to do was upgrade their 32k b line (the Pet with the full-size keyboard) and, if they had added an expansion cabinet for the extras (a bit like ISA / PCI cards of later years), they'd have knocked a home-run. Instead, they made a toy...
.

[Mountain Momma]

05:17 PM on 04/03/2010

And learning how to use dBase and the original Lotus Notes.

[AAKAlan]

02:58 PM on 04/06/2010

Interesting comment. I was thinking the same thing.

I used dBASE II on CPM on my first PC Clone (Columbia) in the early 1980's.

Just for grins, I came back to dBASE in the early 1990s as a consultant to Borland International (its owner then) and then bought the entire product from them in 1999. I founded dBASE Inc, left the company in 2006, but still occasionally use dBASE Plus for Web projects.

It was amazing participating in the short, but very exciting history of the PC. It's come a long way in a time that's relatively short for technology.

And that history has just begun.

[MariJman]

10:06 AM on 04/03/2010

cool old stuff

[JohnJames]

10:03 AM on 04/03/2010

"Father" didn't look too pleased about paying that bill. Like Fred Flintstone and Wilma.

[mcmutter]

09:34 AM on 04/03/2010

WOW !!! The future is gonna be G.R.E.A.T. !!!!!

[mckinley]

09:17 AM on 04/03/2010

About the most prescient technology "prediction" I've even seen. The total lack of keyboards, though, when electric typewriters like the IBM Selectric were becoming ubiquitous, is odd.

[RTIII]

10:28 AM on 04/06/2010

Agreed. That's the most obvious oversight.
.

[DAE]

10:55 AM on 04/06/2010

Keyboards? You're definitely living in the past. Obviously the producers were thinking of the iPad.

[RTIII]

11:57 AM on 04/06/2010

New Product Awareness: FAIL

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/06/ipad-problems-complaints_n_526738.html#s78912

image 4:

"None of my writing tools are there. Not just the ones I use to enter keystrokes into the computer, and edit and revise them, but also the tools I use for finding information I want to reference in my stories. ... It's definitely not a writing tool. Out of the question." Gizmodo opines, "It's pretty clear that typing is a secondary function for the iPad."
.

[okornot]

09:12 AM on 04/03/2010

The hand stylus the guy is using today is primarily used with Photoshop or image editing. Ever try to draw a picture with a mouse?

Back in '67 the only people who had computers were the people like Xerox and IBM, the Census or NASA

the internet as we know and love is/was an outgowth of ARPANET which went online in 1969.

How many here remember MSDOS?

[tcny]

10:32 AM on 04/03/2010

Oo! Oo! Me! I do! (raising tiny dinosaur arm)

[ionthegravity]

06:31 PM on 04/05/2010

not only do I remember it, but I'm thrilled that I've been able to forget most of the C:> commands!!

[audadvnc]

02:49 PM on 04/06/2010

C:>del *.*
C:>format c:
C:>dir

[Harvee Wallbanger]

09:08 AM on 04/03/2010

LOL - not too far off. All of those things would be true, could be true if it wasn't for the crooks and the spammers and popups and the ads.