The Future According to the '60s: Internet, Videoconferencing, and Online Shopping

Televisions, kitchens, cars... the past not only thought about the future but also tried to make it a reality on more than one occasion. However, its taste for predictions never disappeared, pouring an enormous imagination into short films and documentaries. One of them was shared by the Kinolibrary service in 2014, which contains primordial examples of home e-commerce, electronic payments, telework, videoconferencing, and distance education.

For us it is something perfectly normal. Shopping on Amazon, doing our work through the Internet, accessing digital educational material... in fact, I think it would be difficult for some people to conceive returning to more "traditional" methods, especially when we are going through a pandemic that seems infinite. But if we turn back the clock 50 or 60 years, these everyday activities become science fiction.

To tell the truth, something as simple today as having a computer at home was revolutionary in the late 1960s. However, a small fragment of a video from the Kinolibrary platform contains some predictions that, to be honest, are among the best we have seen. Here it is:

The video begins by describing "a little shopping trip at home" in front of an interactive screen, with access to a wide catalog of products and direct comparisons between them. One of the most striking aspects is the payment system: Although it is a credit card that transfers the amount from the family account to the seller, the user does not manually enter the card details; instead, the keyboard has a dedicated slot.

The following section talks about "going to the office", essentially a combination of collaborative telework and videoconferencing with more than two participants, while the computer obtains additional information or documents that assist in calculations and analysis. Finally, the youngest in the house uses a stylus on a special pad to defeat what appears to be a classmate in a game.

To close, we are left with the last sentence: "What on its surface appears to be a technology of isolation could in fact be a means of reintroducing the individual to the needs and pleasures of communal participation." We are definitely still stuck in the first part, more alone and isolated than ever despite having the whole world on a screen...