Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Vision Desk
I've just been reading an incredibly interesting kids book 2010: Living in the Future, written in 1972 by Geoffrey Hoyle, and photographed and transcribed on this blog.
Given that it was written in the early 70s it shows incredible foresight, anticipating things like smaller dwellings, teleworking, and more leisure time (although as with lots of these things it's far too optimistic - teleworking means that there are no traffic jams any more. & what's with the jumpsuits?).
Have a read. I particularly like this description of the 'Vision Desk' that the boy does his homework on:
"The vision desk is more complicated than the phone and can do different jobs. It also contains a camera and a screen. The glass on top of the screen is made in a special way so that when you write on it, the camera can photograph what you write. School work would be impossible without the vision desk. When the teacher writes a sum on the blackboard, the figures are shown on the desk. To answer the question you take your electronic pen and start writing on the desk. If the teacher sees that you are going wrong, he or she can correct you. All the school work that is done on the vision desk is recorded on a giant school computer."
I only hope that some of my predictions sound as good in 40 years time.