The Internet Today, As Imagined When the Internet Was Born

Posted by pastalex on Friday, Dec 04, 2009

December 5th marks another 40th anniversary of the Internet’s birthday. On that day in 1969 — a month after the first IM was sent — the first nodes of the ARPANET, the military-backed ur-Internet, were connected. Meanwhile, visions of the future were beginning to flood in, like so many electronic letters into the homes of America’s homepost offices. Here’s one, from the 1967 film 1999 AD.

Online shopping, warez, household monitoring systems, electronic banking, budgeting websites, an electronic coresspondance machine, and the digital gender gap (that poor husband!) — it’s almost all here. And folks say the past didn’t know what the future would look like…

I have one complaint though: whatever happened to my Internet squelch knobs?

Rating:
rate 1
rate 2
rate 3
rate 4
rate 5
(125 ratings)2

Filed under:

pho 3 months ago

Ha, that clothes choosing console is like what Cher had in Clueless, maybe even cooler cos it's retro. Go homemakers!
Gabriella_Mangino 3 months ago

Wow, this stuff is pretty on point, those consoles seem more exciting than my laptop though. And maybe that digital gender gap study should check it's info--could just be all the husbands paying for their wives purchases.
leonnnn 3 months ago

This video makes me feel all good.
carmen2u 3 months ago

All the goals have been accomplished, but without your den looking like a NASA console. Even the dad's "Wacom" tablet is on the mark. The only unnerving part was the gender bias.
AlligatorDDT 3 months ago

i should make an updated version of this
sputnikchickBUSHWICK 3 months ago

i have a shirt that reads " this was supposed to be the future." and below, in a smaller font it reads "where is my jet-pack?"
AlligatorDDT 3 months ago

i saw a similar one on threadless a few years ago.
Tucker 3 months ago

That's the same one. A buddy of mine had it.
petrogradso_be_it 3 months ago

this is cute as hell
AlligatorDDT 3 months ago

i don't understand how a video about computers can be "cute" but i like that you think so.