>French said he and others in the industry are certain the home computer will revolutionize home life, making still more time available for leisure and other activities.
A perfectly reasonable assumption at the time - why not use these tools an inventions to make our lives easier?
In many ways this has come true, mostly in the communications sector. Now even a 'basic' smart phone has more computing power than what could be imagined at the time of the article. So we've moved from 'computers in the home' to 'computers in our pockets' as a natural development within Moore's Law.
What the article clearly didn't account for, and I don't see how it could at the time other than very vague postulation, is how these tools have also forced working people into strange relationships with technology, some of them harmful.
As in, the 'ghost phone' feeling of missing a call, or feeling a compulsion to keep checking social sites for the latest update, or expecting people to be within reach and contact 24/7/365. These aren't new mental hang ups, per se, they're just exacerbated by the ease of use of tools which can create a loop of sorts.
Lastly, articles like this, which are positive and were informative at the time, can benefit from different perspectives on occasion. The one that I was compelled to research was the relationship between US worker Productivity and Wages. A quick look around and I found this[1]:
>Though productivity (defined as the output of goods and services per hours worked) grew by about 74 percent between 1973 and 2013, compensation for workers grew at a much slower rate of only 9 percent during the same time period, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.
Yes, there are many, many factors involved regarding that kind of trend over ~40 years, but I genuinely associate computer technology as playing a significant role.
> Mom putting the dishes in the dishwasher and programs the central processing unit to do the dishes and, while she’s at it, gives the unit new climate control instructions.
Yes, we do tell the diswhasher CPU to do the dishes, and we do tell the climate control system to use new settings. What they couldn't predict is that "CPU"s would become so cheap that they would be anywhere and have nothing "central" about them.
It's funny how in these predictions of the technology future everybody seems to be familiar with the technical details: mom is programming CPU, dad is going to "buy that much-needed additional 2K memory he and the wife have been meaning to get".
> ... computer will revolutionize home life, making still more time available for leisure and other activities.
As we continue to work more and more away from home.
I had a Sol 20 computer in 1976. My dad bought it for the family and it was one of the best things he did for us to learn. I loved that computer so much with it's tape drive. 16 kb of memory (Expanded so I could write bigger programs) and typing in basic programs to have the games to work. The bonus was I forever was the guy that thought computers natively in the 1980s.
There were two directions it could go. Either more leisure time or more productivity. America has chosen option number 2. Option 1 isn't so great in a global economy--if any other country chooses option 2 then you will be noncompetitive.
Computers can do tax returns. They haven't replaced accountants, but it's not wrong on that point.
Apartment complexes can have commercial laundry machines for the residents, which often involve computers. It doesn't free you from putting your clothes in, though.
As someone who well remembers this era, hardly anyone thought computers would go mainstream. PC manufacturers hired PR people who wrote stories projecting computers in every home.
Five years later a young lad whose parents were faculty in the computer science department at Michigan State became the first student in the history of the East Lansing school system to deliver a paper written on a computer. The young mans name was Larry Page.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 25.0 ms ] threadA perfectly reasonable assumption at the time - why not use these tools an inventions to make our lives easier?
In many ways this has come true, mostly in the communications sector. Now even a 'basic' smart phone has more computing power than what could be imagined at the time of the article. So we've moved from 'computers in the home' to 'computers in our pockets' as a natural development within Moore's Law.
What the article clearly didn't account for, and I don't see how it could at the time other than very vague postulation, is how these tools have also forced working people into strange relationships with technology, some of them harmful.
As in, the 'ghost phone' feeling of missing a call, or feeling a compulsion to keep checking social sites for the latest update, or expecting people to be within reach and contact 24/7/365. These aren't new mental hang ups, per se, they're just exacerbated by the ease of use of tools which can create a loop of sorts.
Lastly, articles like this, which are positive and were informative at the time, can benefit from different perspectives on occasion. The one that I was compelled to research was the relationship between US worker Productivity and Wages. A quick look around and I found this[1]:
>Though productivity (defined as the output of goods and services per hours worked) grew by about 74 percent between 1973 and 2013, compensation for workers grew at a much slower rate of only 9 percent during the same time period, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/2015/02/la...
Yes, there are many, many factors involved regarding that kind of trend over ~40 years, but I genuinely associate computer technology as playing a significant role.
[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/why-the-...
Yes, we do tell the diswhasher CPU to do the dishes, and we do tell the climate control system to use new settings. What they couldn't predict is that "CPU"s would become so cheap that they would be anywhere and have nothing "central" about them.
Except that nowadays it is cheaper to have a micro-controller and a few push buttons than the old-fashioned mechanical timer.
As we continue to work more and more away from home.
I had a Sol 20 computer in 1976. My dad bought it for the family and it was one of the best things he did for us to learn. I loved that computer so much with it's tape drive. 16 kb of memory (Expanded so I could write bigger programs) and typing in basic programs to have the games to work. The bonus was I forever was the guy that thought computers natively in the 1980s.
Why yes, yes it is.
It's Video Display Terminal by the way.
> Someday the machines will be doing everything from the wash to income tax returns.
Those are both still science fiction unfortunately :)
Apartment complexes can have commercial laundry machines for the residents, which often involve computers. It doesn't free you from putting your clothes in, though.
Five years later a young lad whose parents were faculty in the computer science department at Michigan State became the first student in the history of the East Lansing school system to deliver a paper written on a computer. The young mans name was Larry Page.
HAHAHAHA!!! 2K -- that's funny. Just goes to show you they never dreamed how dirt cheap and huge memory would become over the years.