Libertine: On the Prowl

Vidi, vici, veni -- I saw, I conquered, I came. _______________________________________________________________

Future Predictions

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02:26, 2007-Nov-29 .. Posted by LauriesAsylum

There was always a long span between new inventions and discoveries, so when something new came along, like color TV or pushbutton phones, it was exciting and the talk of the town. As technology advances, inventing is easier and faster and I can't keep up with it all.

Nothing surprises me anymore..

Future

05:57, 2007-Nov-29 .. Posted by Chandramoon

What a good post! I was born in the early 50s and I can remember as if it was yesterday my mum taking us to her dad's house to see a "television"! It was a large wooden case with a very small thick glass screen with poor black and white moving live images! In front of the box was a magnifying glass on a stand to make the picture bigger. Who would have believed that only 50 odd years later I'd be sitting in my house typing this message to you in REAL time, WIRELESSLY on a small but fabulously sophisticated Macbook Pro!!!!

I imagine in the future we won't even need computers - we'll just have some chip inserted and be able to send our thoughts and ideas through cyberspace. Hopefully - I won't be around by then ha ha!

Well lets say at my age a lot of things have happened.

06:57, 2007-Nov-29 .. Posted by Patty

I say the old wooden phone that use to hang on the wall, and you had to crank a handle to get the operator. If it was someone on your party line, you had to know how many rings would get their atention. Like two long and one short or what ever was assigned to them. It really didn't matter what ring, everyone on the party line could hear it and they would pick it up, after the ringing stopped, to see what the people were talking about. It was not unsual to have 12 people on one line.

I never saw a computer until we got our first one. but Abe said at NCR there was one that took up the whole room, and it also used punch cards.

My Grandfather's car had no heater, He did have a little fan that set on his steering wheel that would blow air on the windshield, but it would still frost over, ON THE INSIDE, and he would keep wiping with the back of his glove. I would be sitting in the back seat, with this big old horse blanket type thing cover my lap and legs. I guess that's one reason we never went too many places in the Winter.

Our first TV was like Chandra said, big old clunky box, with a small picture in black and white. A lot of snow, but Dad would set there and watch it anyway, untill they would play the National Anthem and sign off for the night. They never had TV stations that ran 24 hours a day. Then they had what they called a test pattern that would come on the screen.

Yes I have seen a lot of things change, most for the better, some not. I have no idea what is left except moon travel and I don't want to go there anyway. I like to keep my feet planted on the ground. Sorry I got so long winded.

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10:05, 2007-Nov-29 .. Posted by littleMissConfused

I guess as a kid I didn't give those kind of things much thought. The first computer I saw was in the early 80's in high school. I wasn't very impressed with them. I didn't learn how to do anything on one until about 1990 when I did some ordering for the pet food warehouse store I worked at. Later at the "delivery company from hell" computers where a huge part of my job. Now I would be lost with out one.

About the only futuristic thing I ever thought about was a dog wash like a car wash. While I was still in high school, I drew designs and had figured out how you could pay for a certain amount of time for the water and how the soap would be dispensed.....Now they are all over the place!

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12:19, 2007-Nov-29 .. Posted by mothman

Interesting post...

When I think back, though, I can't recall really being overly amazed by new technology through my life so far.

As a kid, it all just kind of came in stride.

Yeah, it was cool when my parents phone was finally taken off a party line, so we didn't have to struggle to get a call out in between the half dozen other homes on the line (or have one of them forget to hang up the phone, and witness my dad yelling into our phone, wailing on his harmonica, blasting a whistle, trying to get the person to hear a noise and hang up the damn phone, so we could use the line lol )

I was amazed when my mom was able to bring home the school computer from the elementary school she worked at... she'd bring it home during the summer some years so us kids could monkey around on it.

When my best friend (who was always more tech-advanced than me) got internet, I was 'wowed' by his instant messenger programs he had running, and could chat with people all over the world, real-time. That really blew me away.

But... other than those few "wow" moments, most of the advances that have come in my lifetime have just sort of eased their way into my consciousness.

I've never been someone to jump on new technology... both because I know early adopters pay a price in terms of stability and problems... but also pay a price as far as money I've never had.

And maybe because of that... by the time new innovations are more into the realm of something I might have in my own home, they are by then more mainstream, and almost "old news" ... so really... yeah... I can't really say that I've been overly blown away by any particular innovations, and can't say that I really look to the future and try to guess where we'll be 'X" years from now.

EclectaComment

12:24, 2007-Nov-29 .. Posted by Eclectablog

I think the one thing that most amazes me, to the point where it seems like magic, is Google searching. The speed with which I get answers to questions blows my mind. I'm tech-minded and it still rocks my socks off.

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04:14, 2007-Nov-29 .. Posted by Anonymous

When I was twelve I read once book by Jules Verne, who wrote about travelling to the moon and about Captain Nemo in his submarine. He wrote these books long before submarines and missiles were invented.Aircraft weren't even heard of.Now I am waiting for spacecraft to travel to other solar systems.For the time being I shall be satisfied if I could be beamed up to Australia instead of travelling by plane.

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04:16, 2007-Nov-29 .. Posted by readerwil

The previous comment about Jules Verne was mine ! Sorry!

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09:41, 2007-Nov-29 .. Posted by DeeJay

I loved The Jetsons!

I had images of us in hover type cars. No more roads, tires, etc. We'd be zipping all over that way.

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03:08, 2007-Dec-1 .. Posted by sladewilson

Excellent post. It really had me thinking and remembering the old days.

Here's what I thought would be here by now:
1) Flying Cars or at least some sort of car/boat hybrid.
2) Cloning or some sort of replicating human device.
3) Transporting.
4) World Peace.
5) Handheld communicators aka The Cell Phone.
6) Personal Computing.
7) Rocket Planes that would take us to outer space locations.


Yeah, about #4 - when I was young, I was an idealistic young man... and very much into Star Trek.

I didn't see the copier aspect as much as I thought we might be replicating food or substance that had actual quality taste. I didn't see cable coming. Nor did I see video games nor virtual reality but I guess you gotta crawl before you can get that holodeck, huh?

As for World Peace, I really didn't expect what's going on in the world today. I actually believed we'd be past all these petty squabbles (and in the long view of things, that's what they are, believe me...) but I guess as a youngin' my faith in humanity outreached what we are. I still expect more....

Silly me....