1993 AT&T Ads Predicted Future Fairly Accurately

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
4,646
This blog talks about the recent Microsoft “2019” video we told you about last week and compared it to a set of AT&T ads from 1993 that predicted future technologies. I remember when these ads were on and marveled/scoffed at some of the things they were predicting. Just some food for thought on a Sunday morning.

More recently, AT&T made a series of commercials in 1993 which, despite being less than two decades past, is practically the Dark Ages compared to where we are today. (Recall that the World Wide Web was only four years old at the time.) Some technologies seen in the video , such as electronic toll collection services available even then; others are here today; a few still have not yet surfaced.
Click to expand...
 
I remember watching those ATT commercials and even thought then that all of the ideas were safe bets on using existing tech with some refinement. Now, MS's video is taking the same safe road, the 2 kids I envision not being on opposite sides of a window but opposite ends of the planet using surface. The quick glimpse of an icon of a person walking bothered me though I'm sure that will be coming as well.
 
too bad Microsoft didn't have the foresight in investing in IT before looking overseas to cut the costs of the people making these things come to pass. Sure, look how important tech is, and look what you helped reduce it to...Yep, cut the costs bean counters, no one will have any money to buy any of this shit your trying to peddle.
 
A couple of the things that surprised me most from those commercials was that they even got the fact that widescreen monitors/TVs, and tablet PCs would be commonplace 100% correct. I wonder how correct MS is about the next 15 or so years...
 
Yeah AT&T took an easy way to extrapolate the future, use existing technologies, GPS existed, video phones existed, since the internet existed the remote learning is an obvious thing (although its not quite as snazzy as they make it out to be, more like a message board/chatroom interface)
 
I don't want to start a flame war of any kind, but it sure seems like a lot of finger gestures in the microsft video are currently being used with some mac products; like the making things smaller and bigger gesture, and the phone the man uses while on the moving sidewalk has a look that is unmistakably iphone-ish, with the phone/contacts menu stuff across the bottom of it
 
ATT did an amazing job. Yes those technologies existed, but so do the ones Microsoft has in their video!

The details and implementation are the questions. ATT predicted it correctly though.
What surprised me the most is their vision of turn by turn directions, while not exact, is pretty darn accurate to what we've got today.
So is "Watching videos, when you want to".

The only part they got wrong is that ATT brought it to us ;)
 
the microsoft video seemed to be too centered on the MS surface concept + some means of interfacing between surface and a handheld device. The ATT predictions were a bit more broad sweeping.

anyone ever read Bill Gates' "The Road Ahead"? He already made many predictions back then, many of which, when you read the book now, are dead on.
 
Ya, except for the video phone! Where is the video phone, already? Yes I know functionally it is here, but it was functionally here in 1955.

The medical history on a card, would be another great tool, but that has yet to be common place.

Overall good calls, though.
 
JacobC1983 said:
I don't want to start a flame war of any kind, but it sure seems like a lot of finger gestures in the microsft video are currently being used with some mac products; like the making things smaller and bigger gesture, and the phone the man uses while on the moving sidewalk has a look that is unmistakably iphone-ish, with the phone/contacts menu stuff across the bottom of it
Click to expand...

I was 13, I remember those commercials while watching Star Trek. It was like a symphony for my mine. Watching a science fictional show and then seeing advertisements for what could be coming. I am impressed now, and wish we could see the same kind of innovation in the next ten years that we have seen in the past ten years.

If companies stop looking at the short term profit and put a real game plan on the table that isn't all about making money, but inventing - We might get somewhere. But as long as CEOs are more concerned with their bonus checks than the improvement of humanities future, we are going no where, even at Warp 10! :D



Read below for some Waaaay Off Topic Commentary! :)


I too am not trying to start anything either, just being objective here.

If you look at the actions Jacob, they are...natural. When you are zooming in on something, what are you doing? You are keeping the same total image area but decreasing the range. To me, that sounds like "shrinking" in technical terms. And just the opposite for zooming out.

If I said by circling your finger around a static object on a surface, IE think unit or building in an RTS game, what would you think would happen? Personally, I would say the view would rotate around the object. Now apply the same thinking to an object hovering, IE Solidworks, and what do you think should happen? The object itself should rotate.

Too many companies are getting away with patenting or licensing "natural motion" and one day the legal system, the most outdated antiquated and oldest system known to man, is going to catch up and a lot of these companies are going to be out of luck.

In their defense though, and it is the stupid reasoning ever but this would be the one place where it means something, everyone else is doing it - If they don't, someone else will.

And we, the consumers, lose out in the end.
 
JacobC1983 said:
exactly as it is done on current mac products
Click to expand...

Which is fine, great for that manufacturer. A+, Gold Star, their preference in cookie type for their ingenuity or getting their first, which ever statement you stick by.

But we should be seeing it on other platforms, too! This stifling of technology over patent issues, is just sad.

I want to patent the middle finger gesture so every company, which means on both sides, that plays the damn game I can tell to frack off. :D
 
Inacurate said:
If companies stop looking at the short term profit and put a real game plan on the table that isn't all about making money, but inventing - We might get somewhere. But as long as CEOs are more concerned with their bonus checks than the improvement of humanities future, we are going no where, even at Warp 10! :D
Click to expand...

Four questions:

Tell me how long-term profit is possible if you aren't going after short-term profit?

What CEO tells their R&D department to close up because he is worried about it cutting in to his 'bonus check'?

Where would we be without the motivation of monetary gain? (I am assuming that you do not volunteer at Burger King for a living).

Are you enamored with 'stars'?
 
without these innovations our technology would not be where it is today, and will be in the future; therefore you must give props to those technological breakthroughs and not argue against a breakthrough and say they are not entitled to their own idea and should be for public use on other products. Give credit where credit is due
 
the_dealer said:
Four questions:

Tell me how long-term profit is possible if you aren't going after short-term profit?
Click to expand...
Look at EVERY video game system ever invented, those are not about the short term profit, in fact are losses for a while (except the Wii which is a freak of nature!)


What CEO tells their R&D department to close up because he is worried about it cutting in to his 'bonus check'?
Click to expand...
Lots of CEOs do that, maybe not for a bonus check but because on paper it look like any losses are not as severe (or may look like a gain) and in the world of stocks that makes your stock rise.

Where would we be without the motivation of monetary gain? (I am assuming that you do not volunteer at Burger King for a living).
Click to expand...
Short term vs Long term. Short term it's retarded to invest in any stocks right now, long term, it's most likely a really good investment.

Which brings me to something I was thinking about, all these quick buck money makers in the stock market are probably a principle cause of our economy being in such a shithole that it is. They don't care about a particular company, they don't give a shit about it's future, as long as the price goes up to the point they can sell quick and get out that's all they care about. These transactions typically don't help the company at all either, since it doesn't raise any revenue for them, nor does it accurately represent how strong a company really is. Ok I'll keep the rant there at a minimum :D
 
JacobC1983 said:
without these innovations our technology would not be where it is today, and will be in the future; therefore you must give props to those technological breakthroughs and not argue against a breakthrough and say they are not entitled to their own idea and should be for public use on other products. Give credit where credit is due
Click to expand...

I'm in agreement with you, but not to the point where a different company can't make their own say...swipe gesture on a touch screen without either approval from the holding company, or lawyers sent their way.

Don't get me wrong either, I'm not saying everyone should copy what is currently extremely popular, that is just another way innovation and technology gets stifled. Look at the video games surround musical games with life like instruments as game controllers. What once was a great thing, has now been copied and hashed to death.

WWII game anyone? ;)

Point being, a gesture shouldn't be any one companies domain. That is not a breakthrough by any means, they simply made the software and hardware which makes the act itself such a marvel, and those two pieces are the breakthrough.

And if you can't see that I am not blindly hating, why can't you come up with a better argument than "They made it, it's theirs! Give them props on their breakthrough!" :(

I wish AT&T had really followed through on some of those things they were showcasing. Aside from that....when was the last time a company made a "feel good" commercial with no direct audience? They may be happening still, but I never have to worry about commercials anymore. Please let me know if companies still make commercials like that, I would be interested in their future. :)
 
The only problem I have with every advance of technology, we leave people behind.

The people left behind are those who cannot afford the newer technology.

Now I'm not talking about just computers and electronics entertainment technology (i.e. HDTVs, etc.), but stuff like health technology, safety equipment, communications technology, infrastructure (electricity, running water, similar) and so on.

Does the advance of mankind mean we have to weed out the less fortunate and the poor?

Is the future only catered to those that can afford it and those with deep pocketbooks?

As much as I like new technology and how fast we've advanced and moved forward, it greatly disappoints me that we are performing the equivalent of a technological segregation-- segregation between the "haves" and "have-nots."

We have gone from survival of the fittest to the point of survival of those with money. A sort of technology version of Darwin's theory of evolution.

When will those in poor rural areas finally get something as minimal as running water and electricity to something that has become a necessity of the modern world-- broadband internet access, advanced communications technology, advanced health care, etc.?

The more and more we push forward, the further behind we leave those who cannot obtain them. Places in Africa, South America, Central America, and parts of East Asia and some parts of Eastern Europe are going to be those that will be left behind. And, it's only going to be those in the first world countries controlling who can and cannot use and obtain these newer technologies that can benefit their daily lives.

Oh well, my argument will probably just be flamed and laughed at as usual when comments like this are made.

But, I can tell you this: if there were to be another World War, it's not going to be over territory or political ideals, but over money and technology; and people are going to fight for their fair share. It won't be now and it'll probably sometime soon seeing how the world is right now.
 
JacobC1983 said:
LOL you expect me to agree that creating and producing the software and hardware which makes a piece of technology a breakthrough is not worth a patent and copyright such that it can not be used by another company?

I bet you are an incredible liberal as well, enjoy your hippie ideology
Click to expand...

Wow buddy, do you not actually read posts when they don't agree with your own opinions?

The only thing I have an issue with, is companies thinking they can patent a gesture, a word or a phrase. Or otherwise be able to take legal action if another company puts out a product that uses the same gesture, word a or phrase.

No where in any of my posts have I said otherwise.

Would it be safe to assume that you think the inventor of the steering wheel can legally object or has any rights to the motions your hands make while driving a vehicle?

I miss the good ol days where people could have a conversation and debate things and opinions could be changed, lol.
 
you didn't say in your post that you disagreed with a word phrase or gesture, you said you disagreed with the fact that they made the technology and software to use a gesture. This is what I have a problem with. You need to read your own words again before you argue with my disagreement.
 
JacobC1983 said:
I don't want to start a flame war of any kind, but it sure seems like a lot of finger gestures in the microsft video are currently being used with some mac products; like the making things smaller and bigger gesture, and the phone the man uses while on the moving sidewalk has a look that is unmistakably iphone-ish, with the phone/contacts menu stuff across the bottom of it
Click to expand...

and did Apple "create" most of those, not likely... it is almost common place to know that interaction needs to be come easier with technology, and that the mouse and keyboard are aging... you seen it in movies for ages (long before Apple started doing it) it is more or less the way things are going for ANYTHING and everything i think.
 
I didn't say they created those things, I was just making a general statement about how some of the things in the microsoft video looked
 
Those aired in '93? Geeze I feel old, 16 years ago but seems like yesterday.
 
I'm pretty excited because in about 2 weeks I will be taking a trip to NY to see IBM's future research facility. They are showing us technologies that they are working on that are 10-15 years out. Have to sign a NDA unfortunately, but I can't even imagine some of the stuff I'm going to get to take a peek at.
 
medical history is all in a card in Taiwan.
and their health care system was developed by a bunch of Harvard graduates. ironic that they had to study here to far surpass us in health care.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top