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I think I've seen it pointed out several times how absolutely bizarre the use of landlines and lack of cell phones is to young readers of Neuromancer - even lea
by brazzy 6y ago
I think I've seen it pointed out several times how absolutely bizarre the use of landlines and lack of cell phones is to young readers of Neuromancer - even leaving them wondering whether there is some deeper meaning behind that.
- bitwize 6y agoI remember Max Headroom successfully predicting video telecommunications, but it resembled a 1980s telephone with a screen. There were even "View-Phone" booths on street corners. Also -- CRTs everywhere. Some of this was probably deliberate; the show depicted computer consoles with ancient purely-mechanical typewriters. But still, I interpret the tagline "Twenty minutes into the future" as something of a disclaimer.
- ghaff 6y agoDick Tracy wrist radio (and Star Trek communicator) notwithstanding, fiction didn't really broadly embrace ubiquitous communications. I suspect part of the reason is that, as the article notes, a lot of fiction uses control of information flows as an important part of plot construction. And, as you note, video phones were pretty universally envisioned as landline plus screen. As with many things, video has of course evolved much more organically. Initially primarily on mobile and, of course, it's exploded on notebooks/desktops in the current situation.
- at-fates-hands 6y agoI have a 1986 Playboy and in the "Tech Section" there is a image of a "video phone" which was basically a landline phone setup with a tiny 5" B&W screen with an image of the person you were talking to and it was hailed as the future of communications. Behold, the Luma Telecom Video Telephone: Looks like a press release from 1986: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/04/22/Luma-Telecom-Inc-has-broken-through-the-high-cost-barrier/4751514530000/ https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/04/22/Luma-Telecom-Inc-has... If you wanted some pics: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-mitsubishi-luma-video-phone-works https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-mitsubishi-lu... https://www.flickr.com/photos/fujipc/4578540563 https://www.flickr.com/photos/fujipc/4578540563
- rsynnott 6y agoEven weirder, things like this were still being marketed this century: https://www.theregister.com/2004/09/15/amstrad_e3_launch/ https://www.theregister.com/2004/09/15/amstrad_e3_launch/
- brazzy 6y agoWell, that was 3 years before the launch of the iPhone. It totally made sense at that time.
- ghaff 6y agoThere was a picturephone booth demonstration at the 1964 world's fair: https://ethw.org/Picturephone https://ethw.org/Picturephone