Tomorrow’s World Today
Mobile phones – 1979; Moog synthesisers – 1969; home computers – 1967 and, umm, snooker playing robots called Hissing Sid – 1981. All of these technologies and more had their first mass airings on Tomorrow’s World, the BBC’s flagship science program that spanned almost 40 years, where science fiction was presented as science fact. The BBC has today released an archive of quirky film reports and live experiments that, in their time, examined the changing state of technology. You can see the future then… now… here.
Nathan Usmar Lauder
Posted on Monday, 14th of September 2009 Permalink Comment (1)
1 Comment
I remember watching Tomorrow’s World when I was a child. At the time, it seemed very exciting but, watching some of these clips now, they seem very slow.
My favourite suggestion was to have continuously moving chains running in grooves along motorways. Cars would be hooked onto links in the chains when they arrived and released when they got to the exit the driver wanted to leave by. The idea was that cars would be evenly spaced and couldn’t bump into each other - so there would be fewer accidents; their engines would be turned off while they were towed along - thus saving petrol; and the drivers could relax and read the paper while being pulled along - thus reducing tiredness and stress.
I’m still waiting for it to happen!
Posted by 3c on Monday, September 2009 at 4:36 PM
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