(All right, it's only halfway down the Front Page, but I'm trying to ease us back into the habit of scrolling down gently.)

I've just run into this video (via Paleofuture), which features the home computing system of 1999... as predicted in 1967.

Hooooo boy.

Here we see The Wife (who I'm pretty sure is an old Doctor Who companion) using her video console to shop for clothes. The cameras at the store will scan (live) the display of products for her to peruse, slowly scrolling through them. She makes her selections using single buttons on the front of the console.

Meanwhile, and I'm going to quote this precisely, 'What The Wife selects on her console, will be paid for by The Husband on his counterpart console'. He too carries out this futuristic act through the use of small, unlabelled buttons on the front of his device. The bank's central computer will debit his account, and credit the department store's.

Should he be concerned that The Wife's extravagance will put a strain on the budget, The Husband can receive a printed copy of said budget instantaneously, at the push of a button! It includes the taxes he owes, and the payments left on the car.

"But wait!" you cry. "What if he needs to communicate with other people through something other than a single button? Are we to believe that The Husband has access to some manner of electronic typewriter? Preposterous!" Quite so, my friends, but fear not: the man of 1999 will have something far more plausible.

This is The Husband's electronic correspondence machine, or 'home post office'. None of this mucking about with buttons for the electronic letter of the future - The Husband is able to employ his masterful penmanship to send messages to individuals all over the world!

As long as no-one knocks any of the wires out of the plug-board, at least.

~

I assumed this was going to be a post about what a wacky retro-future console would look like, but honestly, I suspect there are consoles in HQ running on exactly this system. Only without the misogyny.

hS