Back to the future

Last weekend I happened upon this book in a junk shop. I recognised the cover instantly. It was one of my favourite books when I was a child.

Published in 1981, when I was around 8 years old, it contained, to my infant mind some pretty cool stuff. One of the pictures that I remember really firing my imagination at the time was the description of a pocket computer of the future.

Having paid 50p for the book, I went straight to the page, and there it was. Reading the captions and looking at the image, I was instantly struck by the fact that, actually, that future had come and that in my pocket, in the shape of my smartphone, was a device, that almost word for word, feature for feature matched the description written some twenty five years earlier.

How about this for prescience. Compare with an iPhone or other smartphone.

Cheap to buy, check.
Colour display , check (although a little bigger than predicted).
Sound synthesier for music and speech, check (MP3 player, speakers etc).
Microphone, check.
Touch sensitive keys, check.
Keyboard, check. Sockets for Casette, TV, other computers and printer, check, apart from the tape player!

I guess the only major thing missing is the iPhone (or any smartphone) is a highly connected device.

There is very little mention of networked computers or devices in the whole book (it was 1981), and mobile phones were still a little way off. But you, know, a good effort nonetheless and better than the normal Tomorrow’s World type predictions of personal helicopters and jet cars.

Also posted on www.welovemobile.co.uk