AT&T Archives: Seeing the Digital Future (1961)

For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com/archives
In 1961, the digital future was just starting to come to fruition. And the Bell System had a number of products that had either just come onto the market, or were incipient, that implemented these new computer technologies. In December 1960, AT&T had just announced an investment of $2.5 billion for satellite communications and improving the network for data services and computer communication.
In 1958, AT&T had just announced its first modem. Springing from technologies used for the computerized navigation of missiles, the modem, i.e. the Data-Phone, was rolled out in a few markets in the midwest. It would be made commercially available throughout the network by 1960. The Data-Phone could transmit at up to a bit-rate of 110 bits per second.
This film breaks into approximately two parts - part I: the problems of the present, and part II: the way those problems could be solved by the technology of the future. This film not only serves as almost the birth of the information age, it also projects that technology far into the future.
The commercial products that would allow this connected, computer-communicating network? They're basic, but at the time seemed radical:
* The wireless Bellboy Pager, which was introduced commercially in 1962
* The Data-phone, which was supposed to revolutionize business communications
* The videophone-shown as a credit-card-reading vertical two-way television
* The card-reading phone or automatic dialer, which would dial a number from small plastic punch cards, introduced in 1961
* Oh, and package delivery via rocket (which had just been tested in 1959).
Producer: Henry Strauss Productions
Writer: Jerome Alden
Director: Robert Wilmot
Henry Strauss made a number of films for the Bell System, including Family Affair, and Manmade Troubles.
Footage Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ

[@bob4analog]

"Can my machine talk to your machine?" Ooh Baby...what a pick up line!

[@TheyRiseBand]

She's a cutie.

[@julienielsen3746]

Sounds like on of Jim's answering machine messages at the beginning of The Rockford Files.

[@rodferguson3515]

Sounds like soft Cyber porn to me...

[@lunarotimas]

at 6:55 when she says "can my machine talk to your machine?" my heart MELTS

[@HeatherGenia]

This seems like an episode of the twilight zone

[@ZnenTitan]

Back then real life was the Twilight Zone.

[@way2muchNFO]

Voiced by Rod Sterling the very man:)

[@CommunityGuidelines]

The soundtrack sounds very much like it was composed by Bernard Herrmann, who scored The Twilight Zone.

[@koilamaoh4238]

@@ZnenTitan no wonder why I find the oldies soo creepyy. Glad we evolved out of it or have we...

[@1964DB]

It's the music.

[@MrROTD]

The people who produced this never guessed I'd be watching a digital version of this film on a device that is a portable computer no bigger than a book and having more computing power than all computers then in existance worldwide LOL they got a lot of uses right but just didn't have any way to envision what the devices would actually look like

[@OneofInfinity]

Specially the time before Star Trek.

[@orange70383]

Don't kid yourself.

[@JimInTally]

Abdou, you overlook the fact that people are not always available to take your call. Text messaging is simply a way of leaving a sticky-note on their door. And, despite your assertion, I consider the smartphone to be one of the greatest advances of modern civilization. You have immediate access to a vast amount of crucial information that wasn't even a dream 55 years ago. In fact, you'd have been labeled insane for even suggesting that such a thing was possible.

[@JimInTally]

*****: I wasn't saying you WERE insane, I was referring to what people would say about a person 55 years ago if he had suggested the concept of a smartphone and that it was possible we could eventually have them. Sorry about the misunderstanding.

[@DanaTheInsane]

Those damn kids, with their Hula hoops and rumble seats!

[@grendelum]

2:20 In case anyone wondered, this sequence was done with a water table made for filming or projecting... it’s basically a very shallow sink made with a transparent bottom, multiple small drains, multiple water sources and a really bright light shining down on it (or from below in the projection case). A camera is placed under the table and the equipment is that simple. The effects are made with acrylic flow paint and various solvents and oils (or water) flowing past the camera’s frame. It’s a *_lot_* of fun to play with but *_exceedingly_* messy... I had one on tour as the lighting director for a band for one tour...

[@josephambrose2852]

Thanks for the bedtime story. I think I'll work great

[@ashdallis6701]

that's AWESOME THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE!

[@DebraSalamone]

appreciate you

[@plateshutoverlock]

It was strange seeing psycadelic imagry a few years before the hippie era.

[@S.Clause]

Ok, but did not care

[@bellabay2830]

I work my pants to the bone, to find this kind of quality content. Worth every cent.

[@1964DB]

I work my pants to the bone. What the hell does that mean? Oh, wait....

[@billsteinly8105]

How could I be in when I'm out?

[@luisreyes1963]

The guy who said that was actor Frank Marth.

[@JarOfRats]

"Rocket Deliveries" sounds SO much cooler than Amazon Drones.

[@ChristopherUSSmith]

JarOfRats Just wait until teleportation becomes commonplace! :)

[@user2C47]

Too expensive. When transporters do become available in a few hundred years, they will likely be restricted to urgent aerospace and medical uses.

[@jayneadanoff1876]

Christopher U.S. Smith Teleportation will just make clones of what ever it teleported. The original will be destroyed.

[@sleekoduck]

Amazon is working on a rocket service. It will probably be used for business travel across the Pacific.

[@AckzaTV]

rocket pizza? comet pizza? Qanon? wtf lol ATT you will

[@yuppiehi]

9:15 My dad owned a business during the 1970s/1980s that repaired those pagers. And yes, dropping it in water was the most common problem, even back then.

[@jugglingembalmer]

Whoa! Did that guy just jack the other guy's pager?

[@namafarm]

I saw that too!

[@Kit_Bear]

+jugglingembalmer In those days he would have demanded satisfaction, pistols at dawn. Today, we have lawyers, I'll settle for the pistol.

[@Jail4u]

+jugglingembalmer He did jack that pager. Funnest thing I seen all week.

[@gilmartinez7186]

Oh yes he did ;-)

[@minorshan]

I want the end of that scene!

[@websurf90]

Technology is amazing. The Bell Labs of 1961 couldn't even dream of what we can do today. I can talk, stream, and even video call with anyone anywhere any time today whereas they were still getting their heads around the idea of pagers!

[@dulcedepeche]

Even though this is a year ago *cough* awkward *cough* we now have computerized voices singing better than human beings (Vocaloid, try Eden- Atols

[@sleekoduck]

Online shopping over the phone is a thing.

[@turboslag]

Always extremely interesting to see how the future was predicted in the past. Just think, even the most futurist of minds back then could not have even imagined the present we now have. Just as we cannot imagine the future of another 50 years.

[@kelvinhbo]

+turboslag Tell that to Michio Kaku, He thinks he knows how the future is going to be, but I bet people in the future will look at his predictions as we look at this one.

[@sleekoduck]

Singularity, and invest in real estate in Lagos. You're welcome.

[@jdsguam]

"we cannot imagine the future " - Of course we can. Our ideas may not pan-out; but, we certainly can imagine.

[@stevesether]

I'm from the future. Back in 2015, lots of people had been saying for a long time that a global pandemic was a question of when, not if. 13 years before this comment we even had an outbreak of Coronavirus that luckily petered out. And now we're exiting that very pandemic that people imagined and warned about for decades. So I think the problem is not so much imagining the future, but knowing when it will come true. There were plenty of predictions of video phones in the 60s, but it took another 50 years for it to finally happen.

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

@@stevesether this wasn't even as serious as some of the others, tho.

[@bisket2003]

I can't get enough of these retro futurism videos. Why don't we make these now??

[@luisreyes1963]

Come back in about 8 years, we may have enough material by then. ⏳

[@Yoctopory]

Well... we do!

[@robertd9850]

KZbin.

[@sturmovik1274]

We make them every day. They just won't be "retro" for a few generations.

[@Knochenbrigade]

Because we have no future anymore.

[@DataWaveTaGo]

Rocket Delivery - Because money is no object when you need 12 Pate Boeufs a la Bergere ...

[@robertcuminale1212]

Pate Boeufs a la Bergere Hamburgers

[@pfefferfilm]

"some foreign thing"

[@robertgary3561]

Robert Cuminale and crappy ones at that.

[@smcic]

Mmmugh

[@robertgary3561]

To make it more realistic the guy taking the rocket order should be in India.

[@jobyd2000]

It's also amazing how a presentation like this has changed just in form. This video has THREE MINUTES of introduction before anything happens. That would never fly today.

[@goodmaro]

That time's built in just to get the audience to sit down & pay att'n. Consider where a short like this was probably shown -- maybe to kids, maybe on a loop at a trade fair. You'll still see intros like that today on the most pretentious shorts, even KZbins.

[@marcosmota1094]

​@Mdmchannel It has nothing to do with short attention span. Nearly two minutes of shrill sounds and explosions on YT videos is not acceptable. That or a host who blabbers. I watch "Forgotten Weapons", a gun channel, and Ian has a habit of being verbose, and insulting by repeatedly mentioning something that was understood the first time around. Yesterday, it was a lever that held the receiver open while a machine gun was upright. We could all *see* that the gun was upright and that the soldier had *both hands free* to work on the gun, but two minutes of the same sh!+?! Come on! Producers and content creators need to respect people's time, and think of how and where sound is reproduced for their audience. Gee, there I go explaining the obvious.

[@BigDogCountry]

@@goodmaro Movie theater, or quite possibly TV filler where 15 minutes was needed.

[@sleekoduck]

The video was worth sitting through three minutes of Sputnik.

[@laobok]

The difference is that they are actually aesthetically pleasing. Not the digital eye cancer that it is today.

[@michaelwyres]

"...I work my pants to the bone..." That's some strange pants...

[@veganvocalist4782]

😂

[@paulbione5267]

I love how the guy pockets the other guy's pager/beeper!!

[@talesia]

Those key punch cards at 7:06. I remember in high school in 1979 I told my office machines instructor it was crazy for us to be learning key punch because key card systems were going to be replaced by tape. She told me I was crazy, they could never get data into machines with tape at most businesses, it was just too expensive, only large institutions like banks could do that LOL. Not only were small / medium business on tape within 2 years of that, but 2 more years after tape they were on desktop smart computers (instead of dumb CRTs) and large floppy discs.. LOL.... the rest is history as they say.... Only wish I would have had the money to invest in what I saw coming back then...

[@DataWaveTaGo]

I recently met a guy who had a chance to invest in something called "Velcro", but his dad said "Not going anywhere, just do your paper route."

[@charlesneely]

My good friend why the hell didn't you not patent that idea they stole your idea. Now you'll never be a billionaire and have money to take care of your future heirs and descendants you could have left a legacy for years on end that would have benefited many of your family bloodline you could have been rich in the words of Rick James I'm rich bitch

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

Still have a Roland XP-80 with a small floppy drive from.1997 that still works, lol

[@RADIUMGLASS]

You're a fool!

[@jonnelson9760]

I remember learning the Hollerith code in high school.

[@rob098890]

"There are plenty of rocket deliveries Thursday morning!" That had me in stitches haha

[@kevinpatrickmacnutt]

House Music Everyday Yeah, back in those days international cuisine was an out there concept. I want "oriental food, get me Hong Kong!"

[@hakemon]

What will they think of next? *jacks the pager*

[@ZenPunk]

I was dying at that part. "Well, I'll be damned!" *pockets that shit*

[@markfoster1520]

....for Research & Development.....

[@atlantic_love]

Man, I really miss the old days. I was born in 1972, but I distinctly remember watching television shows on black and white television in 1976 or 1977. The CGI and special effects weren't there, but the voices were just so much better.

[@kentdean3882]

You said it. Clear diction and no uptalk or vocal fry.

[@peequod]

Yes, mature voices marinated in scotch and his favorite brand of cigarette.

[@jedwards1211]

I can't believe how much differently people talked to each other back then! Not just the accent but the way they express themselves.

[@MrJorgito89]

"This compact telephone console"😂😂

[@kevinpatrickmacnutt]

George ZitrO All with rotary dials.

[@patrickperry6945]

George ZitrO lol

[@tomgraves6463]

My smartphone is smaller than the 'Pager' that the guy swiped from his buddy, before skipping out on the lunch bill. 😂

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

@@tomgraves6463 I saw one on Bob Newhart that was LARGER than a cell phone! lol!

[@DStyles2345]

1961: there’ll be flying cellular phones 2020: At&t bill comes out to $400 for 1 line with no international call and 4gb of data 🤦🏽‍♂️

[@deserteddave1596]

@@joebidenofficialpotus I was there. Small town, still had party lines. Remember the old shows, when some would call the operator & ask for "Klondike" such & such number? It was really like that. Our number was CIrcle 5-4298, way back then. No area codes, had to ask for the long distance operator.

[@calbob750]

In the 70s a high speed data circuit was 56kb.

[@SG-bp4lg]

4gb of data would arguably be more amazing than flying phones to those people.

[@klausstock8020]

That's because we live in the bright AT&T future where money is of no concern for anybody. "I don't care how much this clothing item costs, as long it's available in green. Here, take my credit card." "Should we check with our customer first before adding $28M for rocket delivery?" - "Why? He ordered Pate Boeufs a la Bergere without asking for the price, and we've got his account number." "Always the innovator, AT&T is the first telecommunications company in the world to print invoices in landscape format to accomodate larger numbers." "Mr Musk, Is it true that you founded SpaceX with the goal of flying to Mars?" - "No, I was just tired of waiting for the Concorde to deliver my Pate Boeufs a la Bergere."

[@AdrianCastillo-tp4ln]

Why does everyone from the 60's sound like Rod Serling?

[@HOODYWOOD]

Lol! I was just thinking the same thing

[@Abr3200]

Yeap, Barbarela's music

[@bob4analog]

That may have been Rod Serling! The whole presentation is from that era...even looks like it. "You've just entered, the twilight zone."

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

Because the language has changed that much.

[@TheGreatOne16439]

Because they were all smokers!

[@Memorax]

vintage vocal sample heaven

[@jogbon]

The narrators voice is perfect for the beginning or end of a song

[@JohnAudioTech]

We're sorry your rocket delivery pizza will be a little late. The rocket blew up on the launch pad.

[@deathstrike]

Rocket blew up, just hand it to Google and it's drone fleet, bit slower and you have to hope the inner cities don't use it for target practice, but it will get there.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

This is really what North Korea is trying to do.

[@roadwolf2]

dont you mean the lunch pad lol

[@jppnet]

Oh God! Another rocket fuel toasted pizza!!! Third this month... :D

[@ZeroGravityFloater]

Don't you mean lunch pad?

[@jeffr859]

7:29 "This compact Telephone console" its the size of the desk!

[@sleekoduck]

Fax machine: 20 years later Video phone: 50 years later Rocket bouffe delivery: still waiting 60 years later. I'm still impressed with what they predicted in the days before color was invented.

[@MrJruta]

Damn, that secretary console with the blinking lights and rotary dial is so cool. Love to have that on my bench for the sake of nostalgia

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

I was thinking Mad Men, S1, E1. "Don't let all this technology scare you" (1961 IBM Selectric. Intercom and telephone w 6 lines.) The show starts in 1960. IBM didn't make the typewriter until 1961.

[@pgestudio75]

I love the concept of that first 'beeper' and how the guy said "what'll they think of next?". If he only knew what was to come...

[@desmisc9911]

I used 8 1/2' floppy disks that were so thin they actually flopped when you wiggled them up and down. 80 MB hard drive weighed almost 100 pounds and used a motor and an actual rubber belt to make it spin. You could see it spinning and even hear it chatter when it was locating data on the single platter.

[@josephgaviota]

I have one of those 8" floppys in a drawer. When you say "I remember the big old floppys," they think you mean the 5-1/2" floppys ... NO, OLDER THAN THAT.

[@albertflanigan5935]

Lol "can my machine talk to your machine" I love it😂😂😂😂

[@DieselDucy]

LOVE the Rocket delivery LOL!! Imagine where we will be 30 years from now.

[@50605954]

Not too far from now. More contamination, abnormal insects, and of course, more expensive water. Imagine the rest.

[@SmeddyTooBestChannel]

Julie Arana will there be Robo-Zombies? Please tell me there will be Robo-Zombies.

[@50605954]

I hope so. A robo T-virus would be like an exploit :)

[@dusterdude238]

+DieselDucy were getting pretty close to that with the possibility of Drones making small deliveries.

[@sweetypie28]

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[@mr.butterworth4216]

I see it now, I see a future of shitty customer service, 20 minute wait times, and unscrupulous billing practices. Thanks AT&T from the year 1961!

[@calbob750]

I worked for the Bell System for 33 years. The further along the breakup of the Bell System progressed the greater the degradation of customer service. Once upon a time all technicians in a location received the same training. Then someone discovered that training cost money and customer service was cheaper with flip charts and an overseas call center.

[@johnalden5821]

@@calbob750I totally get this. Bell System phones used to last literally for decades (thanks to the regulated rate base). You could drop them from head height and they would not break. Now they come out of the package as crap. Sound quality used to be set to a firm QoS standard -- now calls sound like ancient Sanskrit, when they are not dropping completely. And we pay a ton more for it all. Thanks, deregulation!

[@riceboy1701e]

WHAT? Ordering food via telephone? Next thing you know we'll be using a computer to place orders! :-D

[@rustyrebar123]

Yeah, I can't be bothered with talking to another person.

[@mariadecker6599]

We already do.Ha Ha

[@robertlopez6092]

Gee mister so what you're saying is that in the future our lives will revolve around our telephones? Why, they would need to be some sort of "smart" teliphones! And machines communicating with other machines? Why, if you tried too hook all the machines up in the world wouldn't they get tangled up in a web?

[@minorshan]

Hmm. I believe you've cracked the case. Phones were ALWAYS our future overlords! Thank god I've been with AT&T since 1999. Surely my early indoctrination will net me great dividends when the world order finally makes itself known.

[@user2C47]

Should have been with AT&T back in the 1960s.

[@ThereWillBeNick]

This is change. Startling? Perhaps. But where change once moved as the hour hand on a clock, it now refreshes with the 2.39 GigaHertz processor speed of an iPhone X

[@Perktube1]

You're smarter than you look, kid. Youre going places.

[@mjt1517]

They sure would, Bobby. A world wide web.

[@chrome505]

Fond memories of working at Lucent Technologies and AT&T back in the day.

[@I-Libertine]

The X207 was one of the best wrenches, ever. Our company sold all 30 of our only available stock-- in a single day!

[@peterclemmet]

I just found mine in the shed, your welcome to borrow it for a day or two

[@StrangeScaryNewEngland]

My company sold all 70 of our wrenches in stock in one day, too! Wonder if it was the same day??

[@RionPhotography]

"Alexa, call Mom." It's incredible how far we've come in such a short time.

[@johng6080]

Siri, open the hub 😏

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

They're always listening. What an extremely bad idea.

[@stevesether]

What fascinates me about this video is that people wanted online retail since at least 1961, and envisioned it in the near future. 30 years later, in 1993 there's ANOTHER AT&T "in the future" video where they imagine the exact same thing as happening in the near future. Of course, online shopping actually existed (albeit in primitive form) in 1993, so it wasn't so much of a stretch then. Which goes to show that the ideas of what people want, and when we actually get it are too different things.

[@vincenthernandez1646]

Would you happen to have a link to the 90s video, or perhaps the title?

[@stevesether]

@@vincenthernandez1646 It's on this same channel. It's funny since it imagines this future of voice recognition and voice control that never unfolded, but the obvious stuff that already existed like video calls and online shopping are "predicted". kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3e6dKKbj8-rbqM

[@oldtwinsna8347]

I recall online shopping in the mid 80s with compuserve and the like. It was of course nothing like today but it did exist in form and you could order legit things.

[@stevesether]

@@oldtwinsna8347 I think that's also true. As early as 1985 Quantumlink, which would eventually become AOL had online news, realtime chat, etc. I don't recall if they had online shopping, but there's no technical reason they couldn't.

[@tengkusulaiman]

In 1998, I read a computing magazine, it says 32bit system memory limit is 4GB. It was a large value in 1998 for 4GB.

[@scratchpad7954]

And yet, 4 GB of RAM is so pedestrian by today's standards that many _individual_ applications require that much RAM alone, forget the operating system.

[@TheFerrariGuy4588]

That Amazon prime drone thing is pretty close to the rocket thing :P

[@calbob750]

The Bell System was able to keep electromechanical switching from the 1920s chugging along until the early 70s in the network. That is why you had rotary dial telephones. Before Electronic Switching Systems connections were made using electromechanical Step by Step and Panel or Crossbar. There are videos on those vintage systems.

[@iiiDartsiii]

gotta love those hypnotic and creepy old music of the old television. many people don't realize that the internet was already in it's infancy back in the 60s and it was used in one form or another just it was finally made available to the population in the 90s.

[@MiguelRodriguez-zz3cw]

Gotta love the sound effects from the the 60, and 70

[@tubulartopher]

I was born in late August of 1995. I watch these videos for my amusement and for my education. I love gaining perspective and insight. I'll never truly fathom this digital day and age of ours. What a ride.

[@cantcomeupwithausern]

I was just starting 8th grade in Aug 95, and was playing with computers and made that my career... It's ever changing, but I've seen how far things have come since the early 80s. It's crazy that you probably always remember growing up with a PC and cell phones around... And that's just a 14 year difference from me!

[@billthompson2478]

Amazing how prescient this is...but one thing that could not be seen from the world of 1961 is that as digital dependance grew, communication with other humans would dwindle to nothing.

[@KECOG]

What fascinates me is that one can hear the individual sounds in the beginning when you hear the modem . . . wow.

[@cinerama62]

" Welcome my son, to the machine ''

[@holodoctor1]

"the card dialer... an electric finger that dials for you". It's amazing how far we've come

[@jgrant5255]

This brings back good memories. I remember seeing videos like this on public TV during the 1960s. These videos also shaped movies and TV shows and Disney.

[@ArmpitStudios]

This was the golden age of technology films. People knew how to dream them. Now huge advancements in technology are so commonplace that a teenage kid expects a new phone every year and is ashamed when the camera on their phone can't take 3000 goddamned selfies a minute.

[@patrikfloding7985]

"Now huge advancements in technology are so commonplace that a teenage kid expects a new phone every year" Not sure I would call a new model with 10% faster processor and indistinguishable changes in the OS "huge advancements". But, yes, technology has advanced since the 1960s. The transistor was a big leap.

[@ArmpitStudios]

A slightly faster processor isn't the only thing. Just on the iPhone alone in the past few years, they've added TouchID, 3D Touch, Retina displays, more cameras, improved cameras, to name only a few of the advancements.

[@erinasherton8411]

Patrik Floding transistor’s have been Good In everything except amateur radio Transmitter amplifier’s where They Can’t handle high wattage Transmitting but Tube’s Can handle It quite easily but They Get hotter.

[@Mxyzptlksac]

Go back to your flip phone then

[@ArmpitStudios]

@@Mxyzptlksac Hey, there’s a stupid response!

[@CamdenBloke]

One of my dev jobs gave everyone desk telephones for some reason. One day, one of them rang. Everyone was like...'WTF?!?!'

[@MrWolfTickets]

8:03 'and look in to the Smuckers account. With a name like that, they've GOT to be good.'

[@dusterdude238]

+Ben Wolfram Ah yes the Smuckers Account, They were In a real Jam before all this new phone technology.

[@Lovejazz01]

😄😄😄

[@BBCHZ]

I wondered if that was the Smuckers guy!!!

[@ernestgrouns8710]

I love the times we live in, here in the early 1960's. I've seen the future, and it's punch cards.

[@cjandpalsbydanielmcintosh7281]

I find it amusing that I am watching videos like this on my cell phone, and wondering what happened to those telecommunication ideas, that were explained in the videos.

[@cjandpalsbydanielmcintosh7281]

I just now realized "Picture phones" are pretty much like modern cellphones.. the sci-fi video telephones, are referring to today's iPhones, and cellphones with front facing cameras.

[@DataWaveTaGo]

WOW! What a great future! I'm looking forward to being there!! ;)

[@luisreyes1963]

Try traveling back in time...oh, but you can't? 😬

[@Fromard]

7:30 Buttons all over the console but they still have a rotary dialer. Hahaha

[@josephgaviota]

There was no "touch tone" in 1961.

[@ldchappell1]

So when is that rocket delivery thing going to start?

[@GOKHANMERSINLIOGLU]

ldchappell1 drones will take the job over

[@user2C47]

It seems unlikely, due to the increased efficiency of jet engines.

[@arricammarques1955]

When Moonbase Alpha ready.

[@deserteddave1596]

I remember a time before pagers. No one could get a hold of you until you got home or back to wherever you worked. And phone books...none of that fancy card-dialing nonsense. Finding a dime in the coin return of a payphone (in a phone booth, where you could close the doors for peace & quiet). Good times.

[@blessedmamags7796]

Good days 😊

[@JDonahue79]

It's amazing that well, thousands of machines are communicating one another...through blutooth and internet. One thing that they didn't even mentined is that telephones may become obsolete in the early 21st century, which is kind of happening right now.

[@asdf9890]

As a guitar pedal builder, how I’d love to recover some components from those old devices! As a IT pro, it’s amazing how they envisioned the internet, based solely on telephones. They couldn’t see computers as becoming small enough for that…or the merging of phones and computers. Or they knew, just didn’t know how to say it or show it?

[@stevarino1989]

I love the trippy sound effects/music. :D

[@comicconcarne]

Really? It's always sort of scared me, along with the lava lamp effects. The only time I liked it was the original Doctor Who themesong, and that might just be because it's easily recognizable.

[@seattlesix9953]

At the time of this film, all space telemetry calculations performed on a processor were verified by a person. Microwave ovens were 15 years away from public sale and the internet was a classified defense network. No matter what the future holds, we still will be as wrong now as we were then. All I do know is someone will make it happen. Who will it be?

[@simonjones7727]

Plus. even if aspects of the technological revolution were anticipated, the massive social chages (and within only a few years of the film) were almost entirely not foreseen). The future will be strange to us. Perhaps there will be no competitive sport, or no fashion? Perhaps we will not own anything? Perhaps travel beyond a few miles wil be extraordinary? Whatever it is it will be something beyond our comprehension.

[@proczach]

His name will be Sluggo

[@smcnicoll]

Wonderful. Thanks for posting. Great to see The Bell Co planning for the future. Prescient yet hilarious too. Lovely stuff!

[@EarlyLAPunk]

Thanks ATT for putting this up. Companies need to share these gems and not worry about today's message. Dig the real bell logo!

[@peggyfranzen6159]

The movie'"!The President's Analyst"- cones to mind. I still love AT&T anyway.Thanks for great memories

[@jeopardy60611]

It's interesting how they are showing primitive forms of faxing, modem transfer of data, and although video calling is possible on FaceTime, and we don't really do it for ordering stuff from a business, we do look at pictures of items on a web page and fill out an online form and give a credit card number to order something and have it shipped.

[@oliviagomez815]

jeopardy60611 and it is still sometimes cumbersome.

[@fredjones100]

That wasn't primitive faxing - "primitive" faxes were developed in the 1840s, over 100 years before this film!

[@kevinhoward9593]

8:57 touch tone made that thing obsolete. Thumbs up for the guy stealing the dude's Beeper.

[@AnthonyGoodley]

The amount of foresight displayed in this video is amazing. While they clearly got some concepts wrong like the rocket delivery system. Much of what they were working on in those early days did come to market eventually.

[@neonwind]

Thank you for finding this video/film

[@dennisjacob1081]

I think it's good to watch this old films to learn the treasure trove of practical wisdom and knowledge left by our great grandfather's of the past since we are into the new decade.

[@jafs65]

The machine talking to the another machine it’s quite used today for example LG has the smart diagnosis system in many of it’s products. You just call to the number specified and get the phone close to your washer or fridge, and if it’s malfunctioning it sends the mechanic right away.

[@CiroSantilli]

I like how everything in their vision is telephone-shaped.

[@andresz1606]

Ironically, most of us are watching this on a "mobile telephone". They guessed right, the phone was the future.

[@musicom67]

Surprised no one commented on the "Pate Boeufs a la Bergere". - 3 dozen, no less! I believe Quebec folk call it what we know as "Shepherd's Pie"

[@alexandrebouvier7731]

Haha, I was surprised by this reference to the french-canadian. Tremblay is realllllly common in Quebec :p. But it's "Pâté Berger".

[@JamesQMurphy]

Eh, it’s some “foreign thing.”

[@virginiataylor5593]

I thought Shepherd's pie was made with lamb. Wouldn't it be Cottage pie if made with beef?

[@catherinecook2046]

@@virginiataylor5593 better check with keith richards

[@eccremocarpusscaber5159]

“Howard of Honk Kong?” My favourite designer!

[@translucentorb]

Opening of this film: "In the future, public water supply will be routinely dosed with LSD... This is how it will all appear to you."

[@suzannebennett8987]

I must've missed the part of the mid-20th century where you get your groceries delivered direct from Paris by rocket!

[@neildickson5394]

All that we take for granted today was already being developed in 1961, with some changes along the way. That's why, even though that was 50 plus years ago, it really doesn't seem that long. Changes being thought up now will come faster and faster, probably faster than humans can assimilate.

[@shopdog831]

The invention of digital telephone contacts and online purchasing was certainly trippy

[@peep39]

Wow, I thought the world of today was confusing. Some of the stuff they had back then was truly esoteric

[@morockman6706]

I did really like the phone with the punch cards. It doesn't seem totally obsolete, I mean, I'm the type of guy who like physical objects, so it doesn't seem so bad using that instead of pressing down a lot of times on a modern telephone's built in number log.

[@benh9350]

Very neat to see the old technology! Thanks

[@sabrinan4792]

Why am I just getting these ATT films in my feed now.

[@mmille10]

The one thing they got right in this futurism was the pager. When they talked about machine-to-machine communication, I expected to hear a carrier signal. Instead it was dial tones... AT&T thought it was being futuristic, but from what I've read, their vision was limited. If you look up what Paul Baran at Rand Corp. tried to do, and how engineers at AT&T turned him down, you'll see what I'm talking about. Baran had the idea of a pure digital phone network 50 years ago!

[@johnmorgan4368]

Well technology has certainly progressed, but communication between people hasn't.

[@kennarajora6532]

Yeah, I know. What does a guy have to do around here to get a good sized Pate Boeufs a la Bergere?

[@gavincurtis]

At 7:30 it’s so beautiful! I have to get one on my desk as a conversation piece. Where can I find such a console of awesomeness?

[@luisreyes1963]

Have you tried EBay? 🛍️

[@gheffz]

Love all this old stuff of where our tech developed from!!!

[@michaelpothier]

So did every company have to make mini movies predicting the future back then?

[@jimmydean9204]

So this is what men and women actually look like. The voices of the men are deeper then what I hear today.

[@Mitsuraga]

I guess? I mainly notice that everyone here was probably like 15-20 years younger than they look.

[@DevilTravels]

At&t acid trip from the 60s. I Love these future prediction videos. So much comedy.

[@vink6163]

13:02 "you put in a call to the supplier" - he then dials the number by hand instead of using the "electronic finger that dials for you" they showed at 8:50

[@leviledford4778]

What's sad is that for some areas of household items such as hifi speaker systems and amplifiers, preamplifiers and Turn tables the 1950s ,1960's and 1970's were better products than the plastic garbage sold as audio systems today ,the 60 watt McIntosh tube monoblocks my father purchased in the 1960's along with a pair of JBL Paragons sound better than anything sold today for less than a quarter million dollars .

[@DanaTheInsane]

Audio snobs just hated it when you could get decent sound for less than the price of a decent used car.

[@AlexBesogonov]

This is actually not true. Modern operational amplifiers have far less distortion and more gain than anything in 1960-s. Even the last bastion of vacuum tubes has fallen, the high-powered analog radio transmitters are now solid-state devices.

[@cengeb]

WRONG The CD made everything before it crap, and modern audio electronics is much more efficient and higher fidelty...and speaker materials are so much better than crap from the 60's check out www.legacyaudio.com Cars from the 60's where crap also compared to modern vehicles, everything except the MUSIC was crap...only the Music was better

[@absolutium]

​@@cengeb The fact that you CAN do better doesn't mean you are doing.. Take widely known brands like Harman or Bose.. What are they selling the most today? Portable expensive yet cheapñy made speakers?

[@cengeb]

@@absolutium Harman has pro stuff like jbl that are much better than jbl of the 1960s

[@holodoctor1]

The "compact" telephone console. love it.

[@donkeydan5996]

As a musician I love the eerie score music they used in this ❤❤

[@jackilynpyzocha662]

Before Irwin Allen's "Lost In Space" 1965-68 television show. I now have the three seasons on DVD.

[@laobok]

How do you make visuals like that anymore at the beginning? I really dig it.

[@ZnenTitan]

Still pretty cool, even after nearly 60 years ain't it?

[@S.0.K.]

Can my machine talk to your machine?

[@ScottyDexter]

Serhiy Klymchuk No! Not after the last time... your machine needs maintenance.

[@snakeisekans]

Beep boop

[@twowheeldrive1]

Thats an example of dial up internet internet was invented in 1992 I think

[@twowheeldrive1]

Or recent

[@albear972]

Siri says to Alexa, who are you?

[@paulbunch8388]

I do enjoy the AT&T Tech Channel a great deal.

[@JubeProductions]

If you went back in time to this period and took a new Samsung Galaxy S10+ and showed them what you could do with it, and it magically could connect to our internet you would be hailed as a god of some sort. You would blow peoples minds with taking pics, movies, playing music and games and looking up info. It would be the single most important piece of hardware ever.