Why do people think that the world will look futuristic with flying cars and stuff in 2030? That seems way too early to me. This kind of thing happened before with the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey, they thought 2001 was the future. Now they're doing the same thing in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, they think we'll have robots by 2025. I say the stereotypical sci-fi future won't even happen in this century. What do you guys think about this?

I'm guilty of being biased and thinking that things will look 'futuristic' in the next 50 years or so.

But aren't we already kinda futuristic? I mean, 10 year olds have cell phones! There's the internet, which was revolutionary. Also, the whole online Facebook/Twitter to me is already kinda futuristic. Plus, all this electro-pop thing is kinda futuristic sounding. But you might be right, the 1980s was kinda 'futuristic' then too, the whole synth/electronic thing during that decade was culture trying to sound futuristic.

What about kindle and E books? What about some magazines going online instead of print? We are at the threshold of the futuristic look in my humble opinion and have been since circa 2000.

But you are correct, we're nowhere near the Jetsons yet! At least that's what I think. 

I gotta disagree. Moore's Law is on the verge of kicking into hyperdrive. Put it this way: I get a new cell phone every 2 years and after I've had a phone for about a year and a half it seems like an obsolete piece of junk and I can't wait to get rid of it. Two months ago I got my first smartphone (an Android) and I'm still blown away by how much advanced technology is crammed inside such a small package. And what frightens me is, what on Earth are they going to have in 2014 that is going to render THIS phone obsolete? :o

The sci-fi future is NOW.

But aren't we already kinda futuristic? I mean, 10 year olds have cell phones! There's the internet, which was revolutionary. Also, the whole online Facebook/Twitter to me is already kinda futuristic. Plus, all this electro-pop thing is kinda futuristic sounding. But you might be right, the 1980s was kinda 'futuristic' then too, the whole synth/electronic thing during that decade was culture trying to sound futuristic.


Yeah, I am thinking about the same, too. We live in a very futuristic world, we just don't notice it because the development did not happen from one day to another. I think in the US it's similar to Germany:

-digital signage
-slim lcd screens
-touch screens
-very smart and advanced gps systems in cars
-tablet pcs that combine a lot of former analog gadgets/media
-smartphones
-we're (most people) are connected to something all day
-public wireless internet availability
-blu ray technology
-32 GB space on a micro (!) sd card
-extremely powerful digital cameras
...they are actually working on cars that drive on their own..

... i could go much further...

That's (mostly) stuff you could never dream of in the 90s - well, not even in the early 2000s, if you ask me.

I gotta disagree. Moore's Law is on the verge of kicking into hyperdrive. Put it this way: I get a new cell phone every 2 years and after I've had a phone for about a year and a half it seems like an obsolete piece of junk and I can't wait to get rid of it. Two months ago I got my first smartphone (an Android) and I'm still blown away by how much advanced technology is crammed inside such a small package. And what frightens me is, what on Earth are they going to have in 2014 that is going to render THIS phone obsolete? :o

The sci-fi future is NOW.


Smartphones are indeed amazing, but in principle they are every bit as stupid as the computers of the 1980s, or even the ancient abacus. However the information you can tap!

I think futuristic is relative. Medieval people would have found 19th century industrial Britain to be science fiction, and Victorian Britons would have found 1969 to be science fiction. Indeed even by today's standards, landing people on the moon is such an amazing  feat that some people are convinced it never happened.

Still, 2013 would certainly seem like science fiction to a resident of the 1960s - even 1997 would.

I think futuristic is relative.


Yes it is. In my opinion, everything that goes much further than the stuff I grew up with and was even not that common during my earlier teens can be considered 'futuristic'.

I think we've been watching too much Jetsons.  ::)

Smartphones are indeed amazing, but in principle they are every bit as stupid as the computers of the 1980s, or even the ancient abacus. However the information you can tap!

I think futuristic is relative. Medieval people would have found 19th century industrial Britain to be science fiction, and Victorian Britons would have found 1969 to be science fiction. Indeed even by today's standards, landing people on the moon is such an amazing  feat that some people are convinced it never happened.

Still, 2013 would certainly seem like science fiction to a resident of the 1960s - even 1997 would.


I get what you're saying. In the 1950's you had the Jet Age, with tail-finned cars and sleek, shiny appliances and bad science fiction movies, and the 1980's definitely had a high-tech vibe to them which was reflected by the video games and the synthesized music of the era. (Remember, the original NES was a giant leap forward in 1987.)

Now if we're talking about the actual physical landscape, if you could take a person from the 1980's and show them what their hometown looked like (at least in a city of over 50,000) 30 years into the future, I think the biggest shock for them would be the growth more than anything else.

But things are different now. Technology is advancing at a much faster pace than ever before. For example, I went from this

http://www.potofthots.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Nokia-3310-02.jpg

to this

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/08/razrmcln1-1346105324.jpg

in a span of a mere 8 years. The difference between the two is easily a thousand fold.

Sure, if you showed the Nokia to someone from the 1980's or 90's they'd be blown away by it. But they'd be even more blown away by how rapidly we evolved from that to the Droid (and iPhone).

I think a lot of the reasons we see things differently on this have to do with the eras we grew up in. Technology had a much longer life span 30+ years ago than it does now. If I remember correctly, my parents bought out first VCR sometime around 1985.  I stayed with VHS all through the 90's and didn't switch over to DVD's until probably around 2003. That's a run of almost 20 years.

Whereas you, being in your early 20's (and I don't mean this in a condescending manner) have grown up in an era where things become totally obsolete in two or three years and perhaps the rapid changes aren't quite as jarring to you.

So if you look at it from that perspective, like I said, who knows what the future will bring???  :o

I think we've been watching too much Jetsons.  ::)


;D

Now if we're talking about the actual physical landscape, if you could take a person from the 1980's and show them what their hometown looked like (at least in a city of over 50,000) 30 years into the future, I think the biggest shock for them would be the growth more than anything else.



I think the difference would also be much more jarring in say, a Chinese or Canadian city than it would in an American city. Take this for example, Corvallis is a city I'm quite familiar with and it still looked very much like this until quite recently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7S8iPqeQ5g

Pretty sure this was January-February 1989 so I wasn't even conceived yet when this came out, yet it's very much the Corvallis I knew c. 2005-2010. It's really only been in the past 3-5 years that it's started to seem like a different city and even now the downtown is very recognizable. That Burger King and Safeway last time I checked are still there.

To be fair though, Corvallis is a city of right around 50,000 and has strict growth policies, but a lot of larger American cities have probably changed relatively little as well. San Francisco would be a pretty good example, San Francisco in 1998 was pretty much exactly how it was in the 80s and even today it's not very different except around the new Giants Stadium and maybe a bit more gentrified downtown.

On the other hand, downtown Toronto and Vancouver today are probably unrecognizable even compared to how they were in the 90s, let alone the 80s. Hell I bet they've even changed a lot since the early 2000s thanks to the condo boom.

in a span of a mere 8 years. The difference between the two is easily a thousand fold.

Sure, if you showed the Nokia to someone from the 1980's or 90's they'd be blown away by it. But they'd be even more blown away by how rapidly we evolved from that to the Droid (and iPhone).

I think a lot of the reasons we see things differently on this have to do with the eras we grew up in. Technology had a much longer life span 30+ years ago than it does now. If I remember correctly, my parents bought out first VCR sometime around 1985.  I stayed with VHS all through the 90's and didn't switch over to DVD's until probably around 2003. That's a run of almost 20 years.

Whereas you, being in your early 20's (and I don't mean this in a condescending manner) have grown up in an era where things become totally obsolete in two or three years and perhaps the rapid changes aren't quite as jarring to you.

So if you look at it from that perspective, like I said, who knows what the future will bring???  :o


Oh yeah, very true. I remember in the movie You Got Mail, which is from 1998, a line about VHS being high techology, even though the technology was 22 years old at that point. DVD was only just starting to enter the market then and indeed, being able to record shows for watching again was pretty high tech when you consider it had only been commonplace and affordable for about 10 years.

It's also probably the fact I don't really care that much about the new phones. Windows today isn't that much different from the Windows of 10 years ago, at least not in physical appearance. But it's amazing how even a desktop computer can be described as 'traditional' compared to a tablet or smartphone!  :o

I think the difference would also be much more jarring in say, a Chinese or Canadian city than it would in an American city. Take this for example, Corvallis is a city I'm quite familiar with and it still looked very much like this until quite recently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7S8iPqeQ5g

Pretty sure this was January-February 1989 so I wasn't even conceived yet when this came out, yet it's very much the Corvallis I knew c. 2005-2010. It's really only been in the past 3-5 years that it's started to seem like a different city and even now the downtown is very recognizable. That Burger King and Safeway last time I checked are still there.

To be fair though, Corvallis is a city of right around 50,000 and has strict growth policies, but a lot of larger American cities have probably changed relatively little as well. San Francisco would be a pretty good example, San Francisco in 1998 was pretty much exactly how it was in the 80s and even today it's not very different except around the new Giants Stadium and maybe a bit more gentrified downtown.

On the other hand, downtown Toronto and Vancouver today are probably unrecognizable even compared to how they were in the 90s, let alone the 80s. Hell I bet they've even changed a lot since the early 2000s thanks to the condo boom.


I have a brother who lives in Eugene and he tells me that they have strict growth/sprawl policies as well.

I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska and it has exploded in size and population. If I had the DeLorean and could take 80sfan (who's also from Lincoln) back to 1985, I think he would be shocked as to how much smaller it was back then.

The video is interesting in that if you ignore the cars and maybe the logos on some of the businesses (and the phone booth!  ;D), it really doesn't look all that much different from most other medium-sized towns today. And I imagine that unless something radical happens (e.g. anti-gravity devices/flying cars), it most likely will not look much different 30 years from now.

On the other hand, architecture and construction methods have also changed quite a bit and they can put up houses and buildings a lot faster than they used to, so who knows what advances in construction and building design will take place over the next few decades. Large on-site 3D printers maybe? (BTW I don't know if you've ever seen a concrete pump in action, but they're way cool and if you ever see one near you it might be interesting to watch.)


Oh yeah, very true. I remember in the movie You Got Mail, which is from 1998, a line about VHS being high techology, even though the technology was 22 years old at that point. DVD was only just starting to enter the market then and indeed, being able to record shows for watching again was pretty high tech when you consider it had only been commonplace and affordable for about 10 years.

It's also probably the fact I don't really care that much about the new phones. Windows today isn't that much different from the Windows of 10 years ago, at least not in physical appearance. But it's amazing how even a desktop computer can be described as 'traditional' compared to a tablet or smartphone!  :o


I've always been into technology and gadgets (which is why I have a hard time saving money  :-[ ). It seems as if the smartphones are where the most rapid evolution has been taking place, and I think it's as much planned obsolescence as it is anything else. Sony and Microsoft could probably advance their game consoles a lot faster but they make more money keeping them around for several years longer than necessary because they know most people aren't going to spend $300-400 every 2 years for a brand new console. The obsolescence comes in the games themselves.

It kind of makes you wonder how much they're actually holding back from us.

I think a lot of the reasons we see things differently on this have to do with the eras we grew up in. Technology had a much longer life span 30+ years ago than it does now. If I remember correctly, my parents bought out first VCR sometime around 1985.  I stayed with VHS all through the 90's and didn't switch over to DVD's until probably around 2003. That's a run of almost 20 years.

technology has changed so rapidly,It's amazing how far we've come from something that was so small now technology has become bigger.

I miss the time when you could take the bus and there wouldn't be annoying loud-mouthed people talking on the phone. It's so annoying.

I miss the time when you could take the bus and there wouldn't be annoying loud-mouthed people talking on the phone. It's so annoying.


I know, now it's commonplace, every day of the week and everytime you take the bus there's always someone yammering on their phone or turning up the volume on their iPod.  ::)

Yeah, I am thinking about the same, too. We live in a very futuristic world, we just don't notice it because the development did not happen from one day to another. I think in the US it's similar to Germany:

-digital signage
-slim lcd screens
-touch screens
-very smart and advanced gps systems in cars
-tablet pcs that combine a lot of former analog gadgets/media
-smartphones
-we're (most people) are connected to something all day
-public wireless internet availability
-blu ray technology
-32 GB space on a micro (!) sd card
-extremely powerful digital cameras
...they are actually working on cars that drive on their own..

... i could go much further...

That's (mostly) stuff you could never dream of in the 90s - well, not even in the early 2000s, if you ask me.


You know, I was thinking the same thing. Lets say we went back exactly 20 years ago, to January 1993, and gave people a full and complete explanation of what 2013 technology was like. I don't mean people that worked in the tech sector who might have already seen some of this stuff coming down the pipe, I mean average people like my family, which had only fairly recently gotten it's first VCR.

I think the idea of being able to watch TV shows or listen to music on a portable telephone while walking down the street would have probably sounded quite futuristic to the average person back then.

And 20 years ago, The Web came into existence, you had the digital answering machine and Java was invented.

I think the idea of being able to watch TV shows or listen to music on a portable telephone while walking down the street would have probably sounded quite futuristic to the average person back then.


Yeah, that's exactly it. It's just too normal to us now that we don't feel the need to appreciate it.

It's also not too long ago that I was amazed by the small screen that could play videos on my digital camera. That was in the mid 00s!

Echoing what Inlandsvägen1986, belmont22, AL-B, and mach!ne_he@d said...

I think this it what our current time would look like to observers from the 90s
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We may think that's far out xD, but imagine if someone made a video similarly showcasing tablets, smartphones, gps, streaming media, social media, current computers, current internet, blu-ray, 3D LEDs, and HD (now 4K) etc., people from the '90s would be completely flabbergasted  :o.


Gradual change is barely noticeable, I bet that when life's similar to what's in the Corning video, we won't even consider the world to be "futuristic" it'll just be normal.

To me  really don't see ch change as most do.  Of course, in many things I have been "cutting edge" way before most people were even aware of "online".

For example, other then some people that paid for services like AOL and Prodigy, prior to the Internet most people had no idea what a MODEM was, or what you could do with it.  They seem to think that suddenly in 1995 THE INTERNET sprung into being, unaware of anything that was used before.

For example, forums like this.  For the lucky few in Universities, Corporate or Government there was USENET.  But for a great many more, there was FIDONET.

And services like that and more were available for free through thousands of "Buletin Board Services" (BBS), run by people like me and others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidonet

User groups, special interest threads, the types of things we discuss here and in hundreds of other "Forums" were once done through a kind of e-mail, hosted on BBS all over the world.  And they were free for the most part.  Just add a MODEM to your computer, get the number for one local BBS (Computer Shoper had listings every month), and you soon found a web of them.

And yes, even then we had trolls, flame wars, and petty debates about everything like Chief O'Brians real rank to what would happen if Bill Clinton was to win the 1992 election.

And instead of cell phones, we had pagers.

I really do not see all that much difference between 20 years ago and today, other then the computers are a lot more powerfull.  In 1992 I could build a top of the line system (80486-33, 4 MB RAM, 250 MB HDD, CD-ROM) for around $800, the same price a modern high end system would run today (minus video card).  You just get a lot more for that money is all, but it is still around the same.

Personally, I think that in 30 years things will mostly be like they are today.  Other then we will be doing even more with the technology, but for the most part things will still remain the same.

I even heard that news of the August 1991 Soviet coup was spread via computer networks. That's pretty impressive considering we're talking about 21 years ago and not too much different from how Twitter was used during the Arab Spring a couple years ago.

I even heard that news of the August 1991 Soviet coup was spread via computer networks. That's pretty impressive considering we're talking about 21 years ago and not too much different from how Twitter was used during the Arab Spring a couple years ago.


Oh definitely, most of today's technologies existed in a more primitive form 20 years ago just not nearly as widespread. I remember hearing the other day that Bill Clinton's second inauguration in 1997 was the first to be streamed live on the internet. I'm sure the number of people that actually watched it online was completely dwarfed by the online audience for Obama's, though.

That's the reason so many people in a poor area like the one I come from would have been so blown away by 2013 tech back in 1993, whereas those already online by the early 90's might not have been. I think that maybe a handful of people in my town actually owned a computer by 1997. When we got ours in the fall of 1999, we were the first family on my whole street to even own a computer.

Oh definitely, most of today's technologies existed in a more primitive form 20 years ago just not nearly as widespread.


Yes, and that's the point. It only counts what is mainstream. Just because 'a couple of people' already used the internet in the early 90s does not imply that nothing changed until today when nearly everybody is using it.

Same goes for most technology we use today. Of course, there were for example navigation systems for cars in the 80s and 90s, but who could actually afford them? People have to compare the average family from 20 years ago with an average family from today.

I even heard that news of the August 1991 Soviet coup was spread via computer networks. That's pretty impressive considering we're talking about 21 years ago and not too much different from how Twitter was used during the Arab Spring a couple years ago.


It did.

The difference was that the IRC channels were hours ahead of what was on CNN and the TV networks.  Today, not so much - CNN usually takes what it can figure out from #hashtags on Twitter, and half the time they get it wrong because they're taking trolling as truth.  But if they get it right, they're usually an hour or so behind the 'net.  (The other half the time, the networks are the first with the story, and most of the Twitter feeds consist of people retweeting articles they've found on news websites.)

The similarity is that it's about as hard (or as easy) to get near real-time information on a current event.  It takes a couple of days to sort out credible sources from astroturf/shills/propaganda organizations, but it's still doable.  It's not as easy as turning on the TV and trying to watch all the channels at once.  But it's still easier than hopping onto a plane, flying half a world away, and trying to immerse onself in a series of street battles.

I tip my hat to anyone who reports from a war zone, whether they're an "official" reporter with a press pass and a 3-person camera crew, or an anonymous kid with a cheap cameraphone trying to get the shot without getting shot.

I agree. We're not enough modern to have waiters replaced with robots (awesome concept!), yet we're a lot more hi-tech compared to the way we were in, say 1998-2003. And I hate it! I mean, if I must use the Internet for my job and everything else, why don't they provide me with robots as waiters and cashiers? Hello, I don't want to be served by people. I bet scientists haven't seen the 1980's cartoon Beverly Hills Teens where the waiters were robots? Either make robots like that or shut up and don't throw the Internet on everyone's throats (Word assignments, online dating, crap like that). Don't get me wrong, I like computers and some parts of the Internet experience, yet I hate it that everyone and his grandma is so into Internet these days. I bet most people on Facebook cannot reinstall their OSes, yet they use it 'cos its popular ya know'.

I think we're living in the "sci-fi future" right now, and everything seems to be moving at an accelerated pace that it's become rather frightening. Let's compare a typical routine from 20 years ago ('93) to now ('13)...

1993: answering machines where you would leave a message for anybody in the room to hear.
2013: voicemail, which is way more confidential and often requires a password.

1993: brick-size cellphones that were only owned by lawyers or yuppies.
2013: Iphones/Smartphones that almost everybody under the age of 70s owns. And it is not used for making phone calls, but pretty much has your life on there.

1993: pay-phones.
2013: pay-wireless booths

1993: ATMs to pay your bills.
2013: Online banking to pay your bills.

1993: Signature line when paying by credit card.
2013: PIN when paying by credit card.

1993: faxing to send off instant long-distance forms
2013: email with attachments

1993: highschool reunions
2013: Facebook

1993: looking through the classified when looking for work
2013: looking at online job boards when looking for work

1993: filling out paper applications for a job
2013: going through an online questionaire for a job

1993: a big clunky desktop
2013: a portable laptop

1993: paper maps
2013: Google maps that actually takes you right to street level!

1993: compass on the dashboard
2013: GPS

1993: making anonymous prank calls
2013: don't even try

1993: Signature line when paying by credit card.
2013: PIN when paying by credit card.


That's actually an aspect that is not futuristic to me. To be honest: I hate it to memorize so many PINs.

1993: answering machines where you would leave a message for anybody in the room to hear.
2013: voicemail, which is way more confidential and often requires a password.

I like voicemails now cause it's more secretive and nobody has to listen to your message except you.

In my opinion the Internet was a better place when it was white trash-free. Once computers and web access were cheap enough so that everyone can afford them, the web was ruined by too much people jumping on the bandwagon. I'm really sick of finding that every single ex classmate has a Facebook account. Even the ones that didn't have a computer as late as 2005. Some of them even lacked phones as late as 2003, yet nowadays they're online. And they don't need it for work, so it's a case of bandwagon-jumping. Is that what I get from having a PC at home and web acess before it was considered cool?

That's actually an aspect that is not futuristic to me. To be honest: I hate it to memorize so many PINs.


Haven't PINs actually been around since well before 1993 too? Like I think even as far back as the 70s.

1993: ATMs to pay your bills.
2013: Online banking to pay your bills.

I like paying bills online.

1993: ATMs to pay your bills.


Wow, that's highly advanced for 1993. I first noticed ATMs that supported this in the early 2000s in Germany. In 1993 and even later it was common to fill-out paper based forms and carry them to the bank.

Wow, that's highly advanced for 1993. I first noticed ATMs that supported this in the early 2000s in Germany. In 1993 and even later it was common to fill-out paper based forms and carry them to the bank.


Yeah, I highly doubt you could pay your bills with an ATM in 1993. I wasn't aware you could even do that nowadays, even depositing cash into an ATM is a pretty new thing.

even depositing cash into an ATM is a pretty new thing.


If I remember correctly, they started to introduce those cash depositing ATMs around the mid-2000s in Germany (2004 maybe?). I think there were huge differences in banking related stuff between Europe/Germany and the USA.

For example in Germany it is common for more than 35-40 years that people get their wages directly transferred to their banking account. In a lot of American TV series or movies, it's still all about paychecks - even in the 2000s.

The last time I saw my dad paying something by check was around 1999.

On the other hand: Credit Cards only got really popular in the 2000s. Prior to the early 2000s, a lot of shops didn't even accept them and we had to pay by debit card or cash.

If I remember correctly, they started to introduce those cash depositing ATMs around the mid-2000s in Germany (2004 maybe?). I think there were huge differences in banking related stuff between Europe/Germany and the USA.

For example in Germany it is common for more than 35-40 years that people get their wages directly transferred to their banking account. In a lot of American TV series or movies, it's still all about paychecks - even in the 2000s.

The last time I saw my dad paying something by check was around 1999.

On the other hand: Credit Cards only got really popular in the 2000s. Prior to the early 2000s, a lot of shops didn't even accept them and we had to pay by debit card or cash.


People often still get paid in paychecks, though you can't really buy anything with a check in most places anymore. I do remember in the 90s you still could buy your groceries with a check, possibly even into the early 00s.

People often still get paid in paychecks, though you can't really buy anything with a check in most places anymore. I do remember in the 90s you still could buy your groceries with a check, possibly even into the early 00s.


I bought groceries with a check today.  Mostly it is just smaller businesses that don't take checks.

Wow, that's highly advanced for 1993. I first noticed ATMs that supported this in the early 2000s in Germany. In 1993 and even later it was common to fill-out paper based forms and carry them to the bank.


Just take your check and deposit it into the slip, there you go it was that simple. Now you can do your banking online and view it from the website.

Just take your check and deposit it into the slip, there you go it was that simple. Now you can do your banking online and view it from the website.


But you still can't deposit online, do you?  8)

But you still can't deposit online, do you?  8)


Nope.

I get what you're saying. In the 1950's you had the Jet Age, with tail-finned cars and sleek, shiny appliances and bad science fiction movies, and the 1980's definitely had a high-tech vibe to them which was reflected by the video games and the synthesized music of the era. (Remember, the original NES was a giant leap forward in 1987.)

Now if we're talking about the actual physical landscape, if you could take a person from the 1980's and show them what their hometown looked like (at least in a city of over 50,000) 30 years into the future, I think the biggest shock for them would be the growth more than anything else.

But things are different now. Technology is advancing at a much faster pace than ever before. For example, I went from this

http://www.potofthots.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Nokia-3310-02.jpg

to this

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/08/razrmcln1-1346105324.jpg

in a span of a mere 8 years. The difference between the two is easily a thousand fold.

Sure, if you showed the Nokia to someone from the 1980's or 90's they'd be blown away by it. But they'd be even more blown away by how rapidly we evolved from that to the Droid (and iPhone).

I think a lot of the reasons we see things differently on this have to do with the eras we grew up in. Technology had a much longer life span 30+ years ago than it does now. If I remember correctly, my parents bought out first VCR sometime around 1985.  I stayed with VHS all through the 90's and didn't switch over to DVD's until probably around 2003. That's a run of almost 20 years.

Whereas you, being in your early 20's (and I don't mean this in a condescending manner) have grown up in an era where things become totally obsolete in two or three years and perhaps the rapid changes aren't quite as jarring to you.

So if you look at it from that perspective, like I said, who knows what the future will bring???  :o


I definitely agree with you, Al. To see a difference sometimes we have to go back further than a few years to monitor the rate of progress. Like you, I had a chunky Nokia. All you could do with it was text, call and play 'Snake' (and 'texting' back then was considered something out of the ordinary - text a message to someone like you would call them!?! Something beyond...). Now, you have wonderful touch-screens, great visual graphics, on average about 10gb of memory and all the phone apps/games you want. Just over 20 years ago people were using massive brick-like mobiles. We have come a long way in a short time.  8)

Wow, that's highly advanced for 1993. I first noticed ATMs that supported this in the early 2000s in Germany. In 1993 and even later it was common to fill-out paper based forms and carry them to the bank.


Sorry, I didn't really do much reseaerch and was exagerrating a liitle with some of these claims. They did have ATMs by '93 and I do remember being able to pay your bills in '03.