James Martin, Adrian R. D. Norman
Read Dec 7, 2024A book from 1970 that predicted way too much.
A book I picked up for a few dollars at a used book store. Doesn't seem like there's a ton of copies floating around. The authors predicted a lot of the ways computers would be use; below are some of my tweets as I first read it.
Picked up this 1970 book on the next 15 years of computing for free and its awesome “Indeed, when the machines do eventually become much more capable we may someday talk not about separate computers but rather about a vast organism interconnected by telecommunication links”
Moore’s law ~5 years before it was known as that
I guess AI really hasn’t changed
Predicting open source!
In a hypothetical scenario: targeted advertising based on previous purchases
I wonder why the author chose to use Winston Smith…
Sadly not 100% correct on the future of gun control
Quite a few chapters on law enforcement
This book shows IBMs light pen quite a bit; I had never heard of it.
I have no doubt this would be learning today if textbook manufacturers didn’t screw us over
on demand video in your own home
The first(?) #esports
![Text: “In the winter of 1967-1968 England was swept by a disastrous plague of foot-and-mouth disease which killed many millions of pounds
(Sterling) worth of livestock. Most horse racing was stopped because of the epidemic, and working men who obtain much enjoyment from placing bets with local bookies were highly despondent. Fortunately, The Evening Standard of London realized that to bet on a horse race does
not necessitate real horses galloping around a track--indeed, in the ageNof computers it is inefficient and a waste of manpower (to say nothing of "horsepower"). Consequently, the paper made the following announcement [5]: "The Evening Standard today proudly announces that
it has devised, and will stage, the World's First Electronic Horse Race."
It went on to say that the Massey-Ferguson Gold Cup, cancelled because of foot-and-mouth disease, would be run on the London Uni-
versity Atlas computer…”](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FT8gq54VEAEjKXK?format=jpg&name=small)
“Automated highways… within the next 15 years construction of these will begin” In another paragraph he discusses a hyperloop but it travels twice @elonmusk’s 40mph…
