6 ms·

I wonder what people in 67 thought was more unlikely, to have a computer that does all that we see computers do in that movie but in a size that fits in your po

I wonder what people in 67 thought was more unlikely, to have a computer that does all that we see computers do in that movie but in a size that fits in your pocket or a machine that makes your lunch. I bet the food making kitchen looked much more likely, sadly, we got pocket super computers, but still doing our own cooking pretty much the same way we did in 67, except microwave ovens perhaps... (well, I saw there is a kickstarter that plans to change that... but still...) Except that, it's pretty amazing how they got a lot of these things right (except the notion that people of the future will know to press random buttons to get what they want, UX was not envisioned as an issue back then...)

aidenn0 12y ago
They also assumed the computer would be monolithic and expensive (automatically contacting a repairperson, for example) when they have ended up cheap and disposable.
- TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
  Terminals have ended up cheap and disposable. I'm sure Google and Facebook employ a lot of repair people. But mostly no one knows about them. The food point is interesting. It turns out that over time, it's much easier to downscale bit processing systems than physical machines. Given Moore's Law, this possibly shouldn't have been a surprise. I guess at some point we'll have another revolution when it becomes just as easy to downscale, domesticate, and add intelligence to physical machines too. IoT is not that revolution. Nano and bio might be, but they're a good 25-50 years away.
  - jsprogrammer 12y ago
    Google famously ran on commodity hardware. They likely still do (although today's commodity is different than 15-20 years ago). If a piece fails, you just swap in a new piece. Of course, there are lots of pieces, many interconnections, and many different failure modes. Some may be repairable, but you won't be repairing a HDD platter (if you're even using them), you'll just replace it with a functional piece and (hopefully) recycle the bad piece.
sp332 12y ago
The 1956 movie Forbidden Planet had a computer system with no instrumentality. That means no buttons, levers, not even a voice command - it was telepathic!
- rootbear 12y ago
  Aaaand, it killed them all. Let's keep the omnipotent computers out of my id, please...
  - sp332 12y ago
    Hey, the computer just did what it was told. In fact that guy (whose subconscious told the computer to kill people) first made a robot which would refuse to kill people, even if ordered to. Too bad he didn't backport that feature to the more dangerous one.
ctdonath 12y ago
Around 1988, I got to see a >$40M Cray 2 in person, and wondered what could be done with all that power thrown at a single user interface. [pats iPhone 5]
- at-fates-hands 12y ago
  Shocking to think the Cray 2 was cutting edge at 1.9 GFLOPS in 1985. The A7 processors in your iphone? Around 75 GFLOPS or so. Still blows my mind we've come that far, that fast.
dragonwriter 12y ago
> I bet the food making kitchen looked much more likely, sadly, we got pocket super computers, but still doing our own cooking pretty much the same way we did in 67, except microwave ovens perhaps... Actually, microwave ovens were commercially available from 1947 and the first popular home microwave oven was released in 1967. There's a lot that's gone in more-automatic cooking devices -- both commercial and home -- since then, though the popularity of some of them for the home has been limited by the fact that people with a strong preference for convenience go for the wider array of prepackaged prepared foods available now rather than automated home cooking.
- hn_ 12y ago
  Microwave ovens were absurdly expensive in the early days though, even up until the early 80s.
  - JeremyMorgan 12y ago
    Yep. My family first got one in 1985, and IIRC it was one of the cheaper models at around $350 (1985 dollars)
    - hn_ 12y ago
      $300? That's cheap. If I recall correctly I remember my mom telling me her first microwave was $800 (1982). That is over $2,000 adjusted for inflation. The one in my kitchen costs $30 or $40 and I bought it a decade ago.
concernedctzn 12y ago
http://i.imgur.com/3OyA48j.gif http://i.imgur.com/3OyA48j.gif
- TehCorwiz 12y ago
  That doesn't look very tasty. The crust isn't edged properly, it's really light on the sauce, they used sheet cheese instead of shredded or buffalo mozzarella...the list goes on.
kansface 12y ago
This is your chance to go on the record. What will the food making kitchen of 2063 look like?
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 12y ago
  Clearly some dystopian horror. I wonder why they were so optimistic in 67.
njharman 12y ago
The automatic home cooking is ordering prepackaged (heat and serve) food off of Amazon.com or delivery. Turns out that mass manufactured food is just as bland as mass market anything else
Retra 12y ago
I don't think you will make significantly more money with an automated kitchen, as the number of customers you will have isn't really influenced that much by it. But faster computers? In every pocket?

aidenn0 12y ago

They also assumed the computer would be monolithic and expensive (automatically contacting a repairperson, for example) when they have ended up cheap and disposable.

TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
Terminals have ended up cheap and disposable. I'm sure Google and Facebook employ a lot of repair people. But mostly no one knows about them. The food point is interesting. It turns out that over time, it's much easier to downscale bit processing systems than physical machines. Given Moore's Law, this possibly shouldn't have been a surprise. I guess at some point we'll have another revolution when it becomes just as easy to downscale, domesticate, and add intelligence to physical machines too. IoT is not that revolution. Nano and bio might be, but they're a good 25-50 years away.
- jsprogrammer 12y ago
  Google famously ran on commodity hardware. They likely still do (although today's commodity is different than 15-20 years ago). If a piece fails, you just swap in a new piece. Of course, there are lots of pieces, many interconnections, and many different failure modes. Some may be repairable, but you won't be repairing a HDD platter (if you're even using them), you'll just replace it with a functional piece and (hopefully) recycle the bad piece.

sp332 12y ago

The 1956 movie Forbidden Planet had a computer system with no instrumentality. That means no buttons, levers, not even a voice command - it was telepathic!

rootbear 12y ago
Aaaand, it killed them all. Let's keep the omnipotent computers out of my id, please...
- sp332 12y ago
  Hey, the computer just did what it was told. In fact that guy (whose subconscious told the computer to kill people) first made a robot which would refuse to kill people, even if ordered to. Too bad he didn't backport that feature to the more dangerous one.

ctdonath 12y ago

Around 1988, I got to see a >$40M Cray 2 in person, and wondered what could be done with all that power thrown at a single user interface. [pats iPhone 5]

at-fates-hands 12y ago
Shocking to think the Cray 2 was cutting edge at 1.9 GFLOPS in 1985. The A7 processors in your iphone? Around 75 GFLOPS or so. Still blows my mind we've come that far, that fast.

dragonwriter 12y ago

> I bet the food making kitchen looked much more likely, sadly, we got pocket super computers, but still doing our own cooking pretty much the same way we did in 67, except microwave ovens perhaps... Actually, microwave ovens were commercially available from 1947 and the first popular home microwave oven was released in 1967. There's a lot that's gone in more-automatic cooking devices -- both commercial and home -- since then, though the popularity of some of them for the home has been limited by the fact that people with a strong preference for convenience go for the wider array of prepackaged prepared foods available now rather than automated home cooking.

hn_ 12y ago
Microwave ovens were absurdly expensive in the early days though, even up until the early 80s.
- JeremyMorgan 12y ago
  Yep. My family first got one in 1985, and IIRC it was one of the cheaper models at around $350 (1985 dollars)
  - hn_ 12y ago
    $300? That's cheap. If I recall correctly I remember my mom telling me her first microwave was $800 (1982). That is over $2,000 adjusted for inflation. The one in my kitchen costs $30 or $40 and I bought it a decade ago.

concernedctzn 12y ago

http://i.imgur.com/3OyA48j.gif http://i.imgur.com/3OyA48j.gif

TehCorwiz 12y ago
That doesn't look very tasty. The crust isn't edged properly, it's really light on the sauce, they used sheet cheese instead of shredded or buffalo mozzarella...the list goes on.

kansface 12y ago

This is your chance to go on the record. What will the food making kitchen of 2063 look like?

0xdeadbeefbabe 12y ago
Clearly some dystopian horror. I wonder why they were so optimistic in 67.

njharman 12y ago

The automatic home cooking is ordering prepackaged (heat and serve) food off of Amazon.com or delivery. Turns out that mass manufactured food is just as bland as mass market anything else

Retra 12y ago

I don't think you will make significantly more money with an automated kitchen, as the number of customers you will have isn't really influenced that much by it. But faster computers? In every pocket?