What would the 1950s think of 2013

[Serutan]

I don't really think it was a problem with visibility. A lot of books (even Clarke himself failed to foresee things more advanced than reel-to-reels in the 50's) have this same problem.

Not true. In The City and The Stars (1956), he conceived of computers that had
no moving parts, had solid state memories, and circuitry that could take read data
from non-volatile memory and convert it to a person, machine, or building.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

What do you think, then? So far it seems that your belief is that everyone from the 1950s backwards was a paranoid racist, so I don't really know what else I'm meant to make of that.

I thought he was responding to the suggestion that we ask someone from 1912 instead of 1950. If I were to make a guess, then yes, I would say that I far more expect any random someone from 1912 to believe in some sort of racial or nationalistic theory about superiority and inferiority, whether they ardently support it or passively accept it as "the work of the best minds of the time" or some such thing.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Maybe it would be better if this thread was from someone in 1912 instead of 1950

Transatlantic flight using winged coaches? I say, that's a mighty unsafe way to travel! Away with your ridiculous assertions, boy, I have a ticket for the Titanic, and I don't intend to be late for her departure!

 

[Dachs]

Transatlantic flight using winged coaches? I say, that's a mighty unsafe way to travel! Away with your ridiculous assertions, boy, I have a ticket for the Titanic, and I don't intend to be late for her departure!

I'm fairly sure that people had thought about transatlantic flight as a feasible idea by 1912, since the first one ever managed took place only seven years later.

 

[bombshoo]

I'm fairly sure that people had thought about transatlantic flight as a feasible idea by 1912, since the first one ever managed took place only seven years later.

Not to mention airships.

 

[Dachs]

Not to mention airships.

Yes, quite. Failed attempts to cross the Atlantic by balloon were going on as early as the American Civil War. A well-publicized, but ultimately unsuccessful, transatlantic airship crossing took place in like 1909 or so.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I thought he was responding to the suggestion that we ask someone from 1912 instead of 1950. If I were to make a guess, then yes, I would say that I far more expect any random someone from 1912 to believe in some sort of racial or nationalistic theory about superiority and inferiority, whether they ardently support it or passively accept it as "the work of the best minds of the time" or some such thing.

Back then it still was also more about the guys beyond the technology - the geniuses - than just the technology, wasn't it? These people could be superstars. Imagine that nowadays. Superstars. Though given, that trend already was going downhill in 1912. Big Company and increasingly even media and so on.

 

[Plotinus]

Back then it still was also more about the guys beyond the technology - the geniuses - than just the technology, wasn't it? These people could be superstars. Imagine that nowadays. Superstars.

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg...

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Yeah, CEOs. Masters of Business. But I have to admit that the computer industry is somewhat of a special case. Still great diversity of competition and opportunity. Though also increasingly less so.

 

[Traitorfish]

I thought he was responding to the suggestion that we ask someone from 1912 instead of 1950. If I were to make a guess, then yes, I would say that I far more expect any random someone from 1912 to believe in some sort of racial or nationalistic theory about superiority and inferiority, whether they ardently support it or passively accept it as "the work of the best minds of the time" or some such thing.

Well, even in 1912, it's a hell of a leap from people lugging around a bunch of unreconstructed racialism to asserting that they were all vehement racists. The level of contest may not have been very progressive by our standards, but it did exist, and it did have a real popular, if limited, influence.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Not true. In The City and The Stars (1956), he conceived of computers that had
no moving parts, had solid state memories, and circuitry that could take read data
from non-volatile memory and convert it to a person, machine, or building.

One counterexample doesn't disprove the obvious trend at the time.

 

[Algeroth]

TBH, I think that the traveller would be most impressed with the fact that there was no major war, Soviet Union dissolved without bloody conflict and we managed to not use nuclear weapons.

 

[Serutan]

One counterexample doesn't disprove the obvious trend at the time.

But it most emphatically disproves your assertion about Clarke:

even Clarke himself failed to foresee things more advanced than reel-to-reels in the 50's

 

[Lord Baal]

Phil Dick seemed to have a lot of trouble imagining anything other than reel-to-reels, even in the damn '70s.

 

[Plotinus]

That's because Dick thought we'd all just be living in drug-induced alternate realities of our own creation.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

But it most emphatically disproves your assertion about Clarke:

Then why did so many of his works feature reel-to-reels and vacuum tubes?

 

[attackfighter]

North Korean refugees often say that what they are most impressed with, after fleeing to South Korea, is the amount of food available. They are otherwise totally unimpressed; neon lights and electronic gadgets don't even phase them. I would think that our self-obsession with technology is mostly borne out of consumerism and that our self-righteous attitude, in regards to our current level of scientific/social/political advancement, is merely a symptom of egotism. If anything, I would think that a person from 1950's America would be horrified by modern values.

TBH, I think that the traveller would be most impressed with the fact that there was no major war, Soviet Union dissolved without bloody conflict and we managed to not use nuclear weapons.

Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and both cases of Afghanistan were very major wars, both in terms of life lost and resources expended.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I think you're right here, and not only about the capabilities of computers but also their form. I remember once being surprised, watching Star Trek, to see that Kirk had what looked very like a modern (i.e. mid-90s, I suppose) computer terminal on his desk. In fact it was so close that I hardly noticed it at first, and it took a moment to remember that this was made in the 1960s.

Look at this, for example - this could easily pass for a contemporary of the Apple II or similar, or even later:

To be fair, it could easily be plugged into the ship's computer.

 

[Plotinus]

Sure, I take it that these are monitors that provide access to some gigantic mainframe rather than "microcomputers" as those of us who lived through the 80s think of them. But the form factor, and mode of interaction, are what make them so strikingly familiar, at least in my opinion. Where the guts of the machine are located is arguably less significant.

 

[Cutlass]

Hmmmm. The Mote in God's Eye wasn't written until 1974. They had solid state hand held computers. Not much description of them, though.