I have three questions about this picture:
1. Why did we believe paper faxes were the future?
2. Does that toddler have Wi-Fi?
3. Why does the teddy bear have a phone?
This illustration by Tom Chalkley ran in the November-December, 1991 issue of The Futurist magazine.
See also:
Apple's Grey Flannel Navigator (1988)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (1993)
Starfire (Part 3, 1994)
Online Shopping (1967)
What about the use of a light pen? Weren't they a little passe by 1991?
ReplyDeleteI still remember being excited by the prospect of getting a light pen for my BBC micro (which had a video chip with light pen support built in, all you needed to supply was a wand with a photosensor in the end) but the funds from my paper round never quite stretched to it...
I can understand why the teddy bear has a mobile (it is presumably an m-bear), but why does the phone have an aeriel?
ReplyDeleteAt least they got the overloaded power strip right.
ReplyDelete3. Why does the teddy bear have a phone?
ReplyDeleteI find this quite plausible, actually. Playing prepares one for adult life, and toys are often small replicas of everyday objects.
Our parents grew up with toy pots and pans, hammers and saws, etc. Today, everyone has a cell phone, so it makes sense that not only children should have toy cell phones, but that their dolls should, too.
1. Why did we believe paper faxes were the future?
ReplyDeleteYou sure it's a fax and not a printer? Even now people still want a hard copy for record keeping.