I keep having these little moments of clarity lately, seeing technologies we take completely for granted but at the same time realizing how not-long ago they were nothing but fantasies.

Maybe I'm just getting old. OK, yes, I am getting old, but maybe you're seeing (at least some of) the same things. For instance, it wasn't all that long ago...

Everybody had a typewriter. Even in 1992 when we started this business, we used a typewriter (yes, driven off our computers but a typewriter nonetheless) to put out all our proposals and other correspondence. Does anybody have typewriters (they use) today?

You had to get Traveler's Checks before you went on a trip. And a pile of cash for walking-around money. Now I just assume there are ATMs everywhere. I never carry much cash. Why bother...even McDonald's has ATMs.

Only cameras took pictures.

Film had to be developed. You actually had to wait to see what your photos looked like (or had to use Polaroid cameras, which is something else you don't see anymore). Today, not only do you not have to wait, with digital picture frames you don't even need to get prints. If, as someone stuck hopelessly in the past, you actually want prints, you can make them at home. Or, have them printed and mailed without so much as removing your rear from the couch. Upload and order...but only the good ones.

Cars didn't work all the time. They broke down. They got flat tires. They died unexpectedly on the side of the road. Now, they just work.

There were pay phones pretty much everywhere. Yeah, there are still some out there...but not many.

Encyclopedias were massive sets of books that cost a fortune to buy. They were written by egg-heads locked in solitary little rooms hidden in ivory towers somewhere. The books were always out of date. Today, the most complete Encyclopedia may be Wikipedia, which is free and written by, well, you. And me. And whomever. Oh, and it's better and smarter, too.

You actually had to look words up in dictionaries (those were books, too). And, Thesauruses (Thesauri?) were hard to use.

To play games with people, you actually had to be with people. Today, my 6-year-old plays checkers on-line when she's bored. The only massively-multiplayer games we used to have were riots and wars and, there again, you had to be there to play.

You needed to own maps to get places.

You had to go to the grocery store (and the pharmacy and the bank and the gas station) when they were open. Or, more to the point, there were times they weren't open.

You were limited to the books in the book store. Oh, and nobody rated them for you so you could figure out which was the one you actually wanted.

People could get out of touch.

You couldn't talk to your car.

Movies weren't on-demand.

Music didn't fit in your pocket.

Yep, so, I'm officially getting old, but...wow...things sure got interesting quickly.

1. Sean Burgess06/19/2007 08:02:56 PM
Homepage: http://www.phigsaidwhat.com/

Phones had cords that attached to the walls. If you didn't know the number of someone you wanted to call, you dialed 411. If you wanted to know the weather forecast, you looked in the paper or dialed We6-1212. If you wanted to know the time, you dialed Ti4-1212. And when someone asked for your phone number, you only gave them 7 digits.

Ditto copiers were used in school to make it easier for teachers to create their own handouts.

Nobody but the richest kids got new cars as their first car.

You weren't looked upon as a criminal for piling 10 of your closest high school friends in your 2+2 hatchback so that you could all hang out at McDonalds.

You could actually get a job at 14 and it didn't have to be under the table.

2. David Leedy06/21/2007 08:27:45 AM

There used to be Saturday morning cartoons...

You used to have to roll down the car window...

Kids used to WALK over to a friends house, ring the bell, and ask if friends could come out and play..

And only true geeks had a second phone line to support their 300 Baud modem so they could call BBS's...

But has much as things change, some things are not so easily improved. Take your comment on Polaroids. I work at a trucking company, we used to spend an obsence amount of money just on Polariod film to we could take a picture of freight, and then write the shipment # on it. Expensive, but easy. a couple of years ago I found a company that made a digital camera (that had a flash!) with a keyboard. Life was great as we could take the picture and enter key information right away and get it in a database. Now this company is going out of business, and we no longer have a camera (with a flash) and a keyboard.... We will likely have to go BACK to Polaroids....

Technology has come a long way... but sometimes the easiest things are really hard to replace...

3. a. nonymous06/29/2007 10:33:49 AM

film, paper, and books were Einsteinian.
images, screens, and files are Quantumian???

I don't know too much Physics. Superconductors were only 'invented' or 'discovered' maybe thirty years ago. next generation meglev trains may rely totally on them - and maybe then we all will have a train to ride!

parenting today must be more about controlling content than about actual control. Kids pretty much are the top of the sundae - if marketing week magazine is to be believed. Or haven't you eaten at a Red Robin lately.

but, what is interesting. Withh all of the billionaires clogging the good parking spaces and swiping the best tee-off times, THEIR best solution for solving world deprivation is: mosquito nets! Imagine having to tuck your children in, then tell them to keep their net closed, and then actually place a net around them.. Stupefying.

But, forty years ago, silicon solar cells were a high school level science project - mix and make! Today, nothing quite so energetic is attempted - too much stuff to read on the WWW, I guess!

Thanks for the 'voice'.

4. RA07/20/2007 04:44:37 PM

you used to be able to ride in the bed of a truck and the oldest kids sat on the wheel wells

there was 1 tv in the house & if your parents didn't want you to watch something they changed the channel, turned if off or sent you to your room

today people are addicted to their TV - try going a week without turning on or watching the TV - trust me the world won't end :) and you may discover why the book is always better than the Movie