[2792] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Video: "Challenge of Change" (1961)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (PRIVACY Forum mailing list)
Mon May 14 11:20:06 2012
Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 08:01:30 -0700
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Video: "Challenge of Change" (1961)
To understand where you're going, it's important to know where you've
been. Demonstrating that point is another in the occasional viewing
recommendations I've been making from the (really quite stellar) AT&T
Archives, this one a 1961 16-minute short. "Challenge of Change"
looks at the then current business telecom landscape, and attempts to
postulate the future.
http://j.mp/KFXyHj (YouTube)
A few notes on this gem. First, while I never actually saw a punch card
reading telephone, I most definitely did know a firm here in L.A. that
gathered payroll data via a room full of old keypunch machines that had
been modified to accept calls and punch cards via touch tone phones.
This was back probably in the 80s (they also had a modern minicomputer,
which was much less used!)
OK, let's face it, rocket-based package delivery didn't pan out.
But before you smile too knowingly at the misses, remember that some
of the best technologists and futurists of their time worked on this film,
and we might do well to even get as close as they did when postulating
the technological world of a half century from now.
One last thing. Those card dialers were really neat. They *are* really
neat. I have one. Spare cards, too. But they do *not* dial as fast
as suggested in that film. Believe me.
Enjoy "Challenge of Change" ...
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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