Birthdays
Andy Serkis b. 1964
George Takei b. 1937
I could put up a picture of Mr. Serkis, best known as the motion and voice actor for the CGI Gollum, also excellent in Mike Leigh's Topsy Turvy, but I decided to go with a picture of The King Of The Internet, Mr. George Takei, taken from the Evil Federation episode Mirror, Mirror.
Many happy returns to both gentlemen.
Predictor: AT&T ads from 1993 & 1994
Predictions (and reality): Technically, there are no dates given, but these ads are twenty years old now, so let's see how they did with their twenty predictions of things you had never done... but you will.
Right on the money
Borrowed a book from thousands of miles away
Crossed the country without stopping for directions
Paid a toll without slowing down
Bought concert tickets from a cash machine
Tucked your baby in from a phone booth
Opened doors with the sound of your voice
Carried your medical history in your wallet
Attended a meeting in your bare feet
Watch the movie you wanted to the minute you wanted to
Learned special things from far away places
Put your heads together when you are not together
Had a classmate thousands of miles away
Or kept and eye on your home when you are not at home
Fixed your car with a television
Had an assistant who lived in your computer
The only quibble here is that some of this stuff was not brought to you by AT&T, but instead by competitors they didn't even think of as competitors twenty years ago, such as Apple creating Siri.
Close but no cigar
Checked out of a supermarket a whole cart at a time (bar code readers are still a little tempermental)
Make a phone call from your wrist (phones are small and portable, but people like a bigger screen)
Send a fax from the beach (fax technology is a little old fashioned now)
As we say in Oakland, "Oh, hellz no!"
Renewed your drivers license at a cash machine (The DMV is still run like a Soviet bureaucracy and TECHNOLOGY CAN'T FIX IT MOTHERFUCKER!)
Conducted business in a language you don’t understand (Yeah, right. Let's work out the bugs from AutoCorrect before we go to instantaneous translation of languages, okay?)
Still, it's fun to look back at this. A strong set of predictions.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
Another glimpse at the fabulous future of Los Angeles 2013 as seen from 1988.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
To be fair, I attended meetings in my bare feet long before telecommuting.
ReplyDeletewell, yes, my employment history is a bit checkered. What's your point?
Did I say anything? I didn't say anything.
Delete