What is Digg?99 Comments
- bitcloud, on 10/12/2007, -4/+139Have you ever watched a movie you wanted to watch, when you wanted to watch it, and then been sued by fox?
You will...
Have you ever had your phone tapped while you tuck your daughter in from a distance...
You will...
and the company that will bring it to you is AT&T - sparrow88, on 10/12/2007, -2/+74Have you ever had access to the largest pornography collection known to man...
- palmer, on 10/12/2007, -10/+811. Video quality will be so degraded by compression that oldsters will invite their young, ignorant relatives over to watch LaserDiscs... and the youngsters will gaze in wonder at details on the screen, like grass that looks like grass rather than a layer of green paper pulp.
2. If you so much as quote a lyric from a copyrighted song, it'll be picked up by hidden mics throughout our cities and your paycheck will be docked a royalty. Humming the tune will result in heavy fines or jail time.
3. Voting machines will simply vote for you. You won't even have to show up. Kinda like Ohio today.
4. The Chevy Camaro will have been discontinued, redesigned, and reintroduced four more times, and yet somehow be as cheesy as ever.
5. The United States will have sunk into the rising ocean; a combined result of global warming and the weight of its ever-fatter citizens (and non-citizens) driving their ever-fatter cars to haul around their ever-fatter sense of importance and entitlement. - doniguan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+56Its pretty interesting seeing ATT's vision of the future, even though they didn't develop the technologies. I'd like to see what the 2006 vision of the future is.
- mightymouse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+40... with the help of All ***** & Tatas (AT&T)
- NoNameHere, on 10/12/2007, -6/+39Someone going by the handle "hdust" said it best on YouTube's comments:
"
This really isn't that amazing that these came true. This is not like a commercial predicting things 20 years into the future. When these commercials were made, every single thing in the commercial was already WELL under development. They really weren't "predicting" anything. They were just letting the general public know what was going on with R&D at AT&T as well as lots of other companies.
" - maklershed, on 10/12/2007, -3/+30My predictions from 1993:
That Kramer guy is gonna be big
Jay Leno will host The Tonight Show for 2 years tops
Al Gore's new fangled invention will be a hit - chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22Radiohead is going to be a one hit wonder.
- partsguy74, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22AT&T is still one of the major backbones of this country.
And I think that was Jenna Elfman... I could be wrong. - slsanity, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Geeze someone loves their phone company...
- nandorocker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Grunge is here to stay!
- mfratt, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15The vision(s) for the future:
Orwell's 1984
V For Vendetta
Ayn Rand's novella Anthem
The warnings of our founding fathers (e.g, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Ben Franklin. 1759.)
Not quite as optimistic, eh? - soll, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I actually remember seeing some of these commercials on tv when they first aired. Granted I thought the coolest invention from the commercial was the video phone booth, and severely underestimated the power of torrents in the future.
- BlackCow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11@ohgr
You thought of it, go make one. - FunkyWitDaSysTm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11i knew even then that the infrastructure required to bring about these changes couldn't come from one company. but they had some great ideas.
in the birth of the Information Superhighway, AT&T's commercials provided, for the first time for many people, a glimpse into our future, an idea of what was possible in this new realm of limitless possibilities. they provided, for many, a source of inspiration, motivating many to grow up and make these imaginings a reality.
thanks, at&t for managing to capture the essence of humanity with some of the most powerful commercials ever made.
we do. - webist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10OK, until the Blue Man Group updated their show two years ago, they made fun of these commercials.
- Suchmann, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Yeah. That's great and everything....
BUT the beauty of this is that we can say "Ha, ha! You were wrong!" regardless of how mindblowingly close the predictions might have been.
You see? - libsluvbukkake, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11AT&T stands for "american telephone and telegraph."
"This country" therefore is implied to be America. - Marfanity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Too many CRTs to be the future.
- CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10i remember those commercials. it reminds me of a time when i felt really REALLY optimistic about the future.
although we have many of those features nowadays i wish theyd add the pretty interfaces along with them. - ezweave, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Yeah I think you're right... gotta love the Tom Selleck voiceovers too.... Magnum for the win!
- lucaq, on 10/12/2007, -7/+14@ NinjaBongoMan
"this" country, is the country where AT&T was founded (USA), quit being such an international elitist - godindav, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Ever heard of Lucent? Bell Labs?
- Stirk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Actually, apple DID invent the "ipod".
- zephc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8The world of 2100 will be unrecognizable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity - digitalArtform, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Shows you how slow this stuff is to market. We could see it coming miles away. Like hi def now
- FunkyWitDaSysTm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5nah, i just love these commercials. :)
- dubled, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Is that Tom Selleck's voice on those ads?
Supersimon answered my question it looks like. Although I spelled his name correct :) - FunkyWitDaSysTm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5correctLY :P
- Jozer99, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5It is vaguely shiny, and has a "Beta" sign next to it. Its also probably made by google.
- FunkyWitDaSysTm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4the video phone, imho, failed because of the price. they were ~$1000 initally, and unless the person you were calling shelled out a grand for one, too, you were SOL.
- FunkyWitDaSysTm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4wait a minute... you bring up a really good point. sure, they as a company didn't MAKE these innovations (although they did complete a lot of the initial research into these technologies). however, being that they provide a huge portion of the internet backbone, they actually ARE bringing much of it to us, even if they didn't invent it.
just a thought. - justconnor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4cool video. most of it was fairly spot on accurate... and 1993 was a pretty long time ago.
- BrewmasterC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Also, part of AT&T's vision was that they would provide all of these services themselves and get the revenue streams. Instead they are just a common carrier. Poor AT&T :)
- FunkyWitDaSysTm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@daneTrain
didn't you know? i AM tom selleck!
lol, anyhow...
another You Will ad for your viewing pleasure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVplomwqPic - DaneTrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@FunkyWitDaSysTm
I swear I heard Tom Sellick, in my head, doing a voice over of your comment.... - CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3well remember at one time the idea of everyone having mobile phones was a joke. see the movie clueless for what im talking about. theres a scene where she runs into her friend in the hallway and theyre both on cellphones and back then IT WAS A JOKE. nowadays i think ive done that about a half million times.
- dancpsu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3More like "Dancing with the Stars". Anything that gets viewership and doesn't cost much is the future of TV.
- trunkster, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Especially since development of HD started in the late 70s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_video).
Can't wait for the even higher resolution they are currently developing.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UHDV) - bouche, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2holy crap. This stirred up a memory of actually watching these vids with Tom Selleck narrating them.
I remember thinking that most of that stuff wasn't far away. Most of it really isn't here yet as you would expect.
Voice Recognition, Video on Demand, Tucking in your baby, video conferencing with a teacher... I just don't know why they didn't predict World of Warcraft!? - 501337, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'd like to see some predictions from the 70s
Have you wanted to know who was calling you before you even pick up the phone?
You will - Pebcak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Does anyone else remember the Qwest commercial a while back that had a jukebox in a diner which played "every performance by every artist of every piece of music ever recorded"? Ahh, the pre-80-gig iPod days....
- 703_KN33, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I saw Super SF2's DeeJay in that commercial haha!
- xiralc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Transformers the Movie, predicted what life would be like in the year 2005.
I am still trying to find Autobot City and get me one of those cool exosuits that Daniel wore!
..also gigantic transformer machines that are both cars and robots (some are tanks, space ship and trains, those are the coolest). - toddhenkel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You are speaking of R&D today. Back then, AT&T was a huge innovator and pure research engine.
- gemineye, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Someone needs to dub Yodas' voice for the "You Will"...lol
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