Wayback Wednesday
Are we living in the future as foreseen 30 years ago?
Dave goes back to 1986 and takes a look at the Beyond 2000 book of the TV series of the same name and looks at what has come true and what hasn't.
What predictions did they get right?
And what technologies turned out to be complete flops?
Forum: http://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-944-has-the-future-arrived-yet/'>http://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-944-has-the-future-arrived-yet/
Part 2: https://youtu.be/S4HCQ3bkuZc
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Hi Are we living in the future? Well it's an interesting question. I Thought we'd find out because it's 2016 and we don't really have hoverboards. Well, they call them hoverboards but they really suck. And we don't have flying cars, we don't have dust repellent paper, we don't have anything.

So I thought we'd go back to 1986 and check out if we're in the future. What I've got here is a book called Beyond 2000 This actually as it says here, the book of the TV series. This was an Australian TV series and actually started in 1981 that was called Beyond Tomorrow, but then they renamed it Beyond 2000 and 85 and this book came out in 86. and I've actually got three of these books here that came out in the later years.

bought two and then book three. This one came out in 1989 and this TV show was all about what life would be like in the future. You know, would we have a Jetsons type future In the TV show went through many different types of our advanced futuristic technology back then and speculated whether or not we'd be using these in the future and in fields as mixed as aviation, computers, construction, energy, food and agriculture, sports medicine, society, space transport, and all sorts of stuff. So I thought we'd take a look at this book that's 30 years old now and see if any of these things have come true or what's happened to them.

We've got some ancient Pcs here, folks. If anything, it's gonna be a look at some serious vintage retro tech, so let's get to it. Could be hilarious. Are we living in the future? I Don't know and Beyond 2000 was produced by an Australian company called Beyond Productions.

you might be familiar with that now and they're the ones who also produced Mythbusters are alone with many other shows past and present and curiously in Australia they've just restarted this series and it's called Beyond at 2020. but we're going back 30 years and we're going to see if the future has come true. so I'll just go through these, pick out some choice ones from all three of these books are from 1986 to 1989 and just to show some of the more interesting or amusing ones that have or have not come true. well start out with just the first story in the first book here and it's the low knees.

I'd do it yourself playing by our Burt Rutan who knows that name and I guess they were looking at the future of do-it-yourself you know, kit aircraft and stuff like that and well, yeah in the future Now thirty years later. yeah people are still doing his self own planes and things like that. Not too familiar with the industry but yeah it hasn't really taken off. It's not like every man these dogs are building their own playing these days of what happened to the long ease and Burt Rutan well he's still around.

He was involved in the Virgin Galactic thing and the his company is now owned by Northrop Grumman. So yeah, do-it-yourself planes still around. but yeah, computers hold on to your hat. 1986 I Love the bodge wires on this photo.
look at this, that's the one they chose as like this is the high-tech future. These dip packages and classic are four layer board with the chips in the grids and everything else. and some dyes that were, you know, ancient processes. Oh goodness.

and we've got an article on Samsung Semiconductors. So yes, Samsung went on to be absolutely huge. They're talking about South Korea They're chipping away at the joints. Um yeah, that future came true.

I mean we, you know the Galaxy Note Seven aside I'm here. Would have thought you know battery technology would screw them up in the future. but yeah, that major absolute player. So that certainly came true.

And they're talking about massive 64 K Bit deer Rams and 150 thousand transistors VLSI dies. Oh man. yeah, the future no one predicted. you know, ten nanometer stuff.

For all the technology involved in design and manufacturing computer chips, humans still proved to be the most dexterous and optimal machines for assembling computer circuit boards. Yeah, well, there's nothing in here on the modern surface-mount stuff in the pickin place and things like that which were around back then. but ya know, who could have imagined the really advanced PCB technology we've got these days? Absolutely. And packaging technology absolutely incredible.

And we've got Cedric the No Hands computer developed by injury down in at the University of Adelaide. It basically allows you to look at that study piece of technology allows you to stare at the screen and it detects where your eyes are looking at to, you know, to select things on screen. and well, you know, yeah, we've got that tech these days. You can do that sort of thing, but it never took off.

So yeah, that one's a fail for all our advanced smartphone technology. Thirty years later, all we can do is swipe. It doesn't take your eye movement and select stuff on screen, not fingers. swipe.

e Next, did computer animation become big? Well I Don't even have to answer that one. You know the answer to that. Here's some early computer animation: the Antics system. and look at that study.

Studying animation. Wow. So yeah. computer animation.

It dominates everything in, you know, movies and everything else these days. I Love this. The computer gives the artist a choice of, for instance, pencil, oil, watercolor, crayon, or chalk. You don't even need to be able to draw straight lines or circles, just mark two points and the computer does the rest.

Oh gold. And we have an article on Modems. Computers talk turkey over the phone. Oh wow, who even thinks about modem technology these days? Nobody.

Amy In construction and architecture, we got a story on the twin towers and the technology that went into those and the computer simulation and everything else. So for all the engineering involved in this thing, who would have thought that the thing to bring these down was wasn't earthquakes or you know, wind vibration. all that sort of engineering stuff. It was.
Yeah. Jumbo's flying into them. Hmm. and on - energy We go.

Wind power. Yep, wind power is huge in the future, our maid. Not sure how much of the world's energy is produced by wind power now and what else are? We got the molten salt reflective our furnaces that just heat up those salts and they really, you know there's a few of them around I believe. but they really haven't taken on like I thought they would I Thought you know that was a brilliant idea at the time, but yet, they haven't really turned into the big deal.

and hmm. more for silicon solar cells? Will they be the future? You bet. Yeah. I Don't even need to mention that.

Fuel cells? Well, no, they're still trying to take off wave power. Nope. still trying to work. take off on wave power.

I Don't think nobody anyone's done that on a real mass scale. Has been a few pilot projects and things like that, but 30 years later. no, there's still. sort of, you know, tidal power and stuff like that.

There's a few installations around, but it's not taken the world by storm and solar towers where it just sucks the heat up like that. Well, Nope. I Don't believe they've taken off at all. so that's a big fail.

And energy conservation in buildings? Well, yeah, in fact, it's a law in a lot of you know, countries and cities around the world to make buildings. you know, environmentally friendly and energy conservative and things like that. So yep, we're certainly taken that seriously onto medicine. And a Japanese hospital robot.

A bedside robot that helped our patients. Have we got bedside robots Thirty years later? Nope. As far as scanning technology goes, CT scanning PET scanning in an NMR scanning and we take it for granted these days. So yep, the future has come true.

You know. I Just got my knee operated on I Go down to the local wire clinic and they do an MRI on my knee and Bob's your uncle. Um, so yeah. definitely our scanners have come true and we're all the better for it.

Biofeedback classic. Love the do please - book. We got acupuncture. Read this last paragraph makes you sad.

It's possible that it really is just a matter of faith, you think, but those who believe only in heart scientific evidence may simply be followers of a different faith. Hang on while. I Facepalm. Oh, just a few years ago, calculators were banned from classrooms.

Now we see computers in primary schools. Human beings of the 20th century have a never ending ability to accept new technology and to incorporate those developments into their lives so that what is fantastic today will be Old Hat tomorrow. Yeah, check out that old Hat technology. No.

I Predicted Smart phones. of course all the Internet Smart cards. Yes, the future is here and yes, we're using smart cards. but 30 years after these things were used I can remember going to the Beyond 2000 show I Don't know, fools be called Beyond 2000 Booze here in Sydney at the Exhibition Centre and you got one of these smart cards and it was like oh wow futuristic technology like it was the access card.
they gave you a smart card to get into the thing and that was like phenomenal as a kid I was going wow shipping a card but yeah, it's really only been the last decade that smart cards have really are taken off moreso in Australia than the U.s. they were lagging behind I believe many countries. but yeah, with modern cryptographic techniques and stuff like that and online e-commerce and things like that, that certainly was spot on. But yet nobody thought about online transactions.

that was. You know they talk about doing paying for stuff by phone. but yeah, nobody predicted e-commerce on the Internet This is hilarious. The French are in the process of switching the telephone directory over to video text instead of prettier than you paper directory.

Each year it will eventually be on a central computer database and everyone with a phone will have a video Text terminal. And to access this information. Yep, more. talk about video text.

Oh goodness. A computerized hotel with digital locks and key cards. The trouble with locks is that they're all too easily picked. Well, Yes, so are the modern electronic locks you would have thought.

I Love how they talk about one of these electronic tags they put on now prisoners and stuff like that. and look at that marvelous through-hole technology there and down here. They talk about 1984 and how big Brother is watching you on those wearing it. Well, Big Brother's following you everywhere with your damn smartphone if we do it willingly.

The Cebu store a high-tech shopping complex in Japan and look at this. We have robots following us around. Oh, do we have these in Walmart these days? Or Woolies Mm Nope. Watch Technology: In 1986, they're raving about a watch that can store ten different telephone numbers.

Wow, That displays on this tiny liquid crystal screen. Love it. And these electronic copy boards were you're right on. They scan them and then print them out.

Yeah, we're still using like people still use those. Thirty years later. The Hubble Space Telescope Yes, it's still working thirty years later, although they didn't predict the problems with manufacturing the optics on the thing and then have to go up there and service it and put on the corrective lenses. But no, the Hubble Space Telescope certainly changed our view on the universe for the better.

Geo Steiff Princeton Physicist Gerard O'Neill has his way. Everyone in the United States will soon be able to contact everyone else, no matter where they are. It plans to achieve this by setting up a global communications network called Geo Star, the Ultimate in personal Communications. Gia Star would use satellites to contact anyone anywhere with anyone anywhere else.
whether or not they're stranded in the Gobi Desert or driving across Alaska personal transceivers with the size of a large pocket calculator. Oh goodness. Yep. nobody's got a device that you know.

Well, we've got GPS of course, but that's receiving. We're not transmitting personally via satellites that didn't come through. they just, you know, mobile phone infrastructure took over and never look back. computerized joggers.

Yep, that all that fitness tracking stuff finally came through. You know, 25 or 30 years later with the but you know, absolute mad craze in fitness tracking technology. So yeah, that's a whip video. Eight was going to be the technology of the future.

The electronic answer? The Super Eight. Well yeah, this is just like laughably ancient Tech Now adays and CD players. I've done a tear down of that exact model portable our CD player from Sony and it's once again laughably ancient tech. Nobody predicted Mp3 and you know, iPods and everything else that would come to fruition.

And yeah, portable color television. Well, once again, smartphones killed so and the internet killed so much of this tech. the no vague chip mate, just computer with robot arm and the Kerswell 215 music synthesizer. So yeah, of course music synthesis come a hell of a long way since then.

Now the exception of auto-tune of course. hmm in digital television? Yes, well, digital television did. certainly our take over. they eventually are switched off analog.

TV I've done a video on that when they switched off the analog TV I've even got riding my lab here behind me some of the original analog TV transmission equipment because they discontinued Do but hates it. Took 25 years to do that I didn't hear there was no talk of like MPEG or anything like that. Um, it just yeah, they could not foresee that. Auto Navigation: Mercedes-benz were working on tech way back thirty years ago and yeah, nobody predicted the GPS and the hour and now the move towards our autonomous cars and stuff like that.

It's just know just the act of being able to get something to tell you where to go was phenomenal future Tech Back then we've got stuff like Porsche 959 and plastic engines, air bags or yeah, I'ma they were. We know every cars got an air bag and play. yet plastic engines and all sorts of stuff like that. but no mention at all of electric cars which you know we're now starting to get back into.

So there you go I Hope you enjoyed that look back 30 years into the past and beyond the 2000 and what the future was going to be like. Some hits and some misses. This is only book one I'll do another video on book two cuz yeah, this is like a 20 minute video. So yep, click here somewhere for the other books to see if anything else came true.
Catch you next time you.

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By YTB

19 thoughts on “Eevblog #944 – has the future arrived yet? – part 1”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars RoscoZone says:

    "Beyond tomorrow", then "Towards 2000", then "Beyond 2000"?

    Homebuilt aircraft are a (reasonably big) thing, encouraged by the Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) rules. If you need proof, head to Oshkosh, B'gosh…

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Knuckles the Echidna says:

    Just catching up on missed videos, really enjoyed it!

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Adam Lumpkins says:

    Dave thought I would mention I had a cousin that had cerebral palsy which he loved to read and write books and later on in his life he became paralyzed from the neck down and somewhere his family acquired a headband that the user puts on with a reflector and a receiver that plugs into your computer and with that he had written several books. he was very good at it. he could write several chapters a day just by moving his forehead muscles IE eyebrows

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Deep River Bassin says:

    Thanks for pointing out that "hover boards" are not hover boards at all. The fact that everyone has no problem at all calling these planks with WHEELS "hoverboards" has really annoyed me. Now when Dave Jones develops the board that really does hover, what the hell are we going to call it!?

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Omer Choudhry says:

    The eye-movement detection tech isn't a total fail.
    they strap a similar version of that in almost every Samsung note device. Quite handy really

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Gordon Chin says:

    If you were born in 1986 or before you are now older than Christopher Lloyd in the first movie.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Andy Core says:

    thx for mentioning the tool for wannabe singers, autotune. as you implied, really not a blessing, a nightmare for people who love real music.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jasper Janssen says:

    That's weird, all those smart cards have the contacts in a now-non-standard location. We used smartcard payphone cards in the mid to late 90s here, and those already had the now-standard location on a credit card size card.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jasper Janssen says:

    Cedric says specifically "for those with a severe handicap this could be a lifesaver", so they weren't predicting it would be universal. And for those people who only have glance control left, these things are universally used.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars DossKat says:

    You know, Samsung actually had a feature that let you scroll stuff on your phone screen by moving your eyes. It doesn't work great (at least on the old S4 or whatever I tried it on) but it does exist!

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars dlarge6502 says:

    Actually modems are everywhere when you think about it. Nobody gets on the internet without a DSL or cable modem. Well, mobile phones do when they are not on wifi.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Long John says:

    Yes we are in the future, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series just a year off of what the movie Back to the Future predicted

    What more proof does one need?

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars LA6UOA says:

    Beyond 2000! I was glued to the TV! Thanks for the tour down the memory lane ๐Ÿ™‚

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Darren Landrum says:

    The Kurzweil 250 hit a subject near and dear to my heart, as I have one of its successors, a K2000, in my studio. 90s vintage, but even today, still a nice piece of kit.

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars BleakVision says:

    I don't see whats so laughable about tech which had its time and made billions for its creators in many cases.

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars leigh Moom says:

    Have to disagree on twin towers. They were bought down by explosives. 9/11 official report from nist has been disproved by anyone that looks at it even thought they wont release 28 pages but none of the science in it is actually science. Can also look at London 7-7 bombings was also a false flag.

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jonas vH. Berg says:

    The twin towers were NOT taken down by the planes that hit them. That is a US government propagated myth (or cover up). The massive structural steel construction made such a collapse impossible. This is well documented by engineers who know their stuff. The towers were actually built to withstand airplane impact.

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Tim Savage says:

    Used to love this show. The eye tracking feature is in some Samsung smart phones, would scroll text when you reached the bottom of the page, again never really took off. People are paranoid about the camera being on all the time (what are you doing Dave?).

  19. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Brian Stone says:

    The see-through diagram of the Porsche 959 on the bottom-left corner of page 288 was created by David Kimble, who happens to be my cousin. ๐Ÿ™‚

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