The Future’s Technology, Today

The people of 1967 were no different than we are today - obsessed with the future and the new technology it might yield. It was a magical time when technology was developing so rapidly that people were placing wild assumptions of what the technology of the 2000s would be like. How accurate were the predictions of the scientific community of the 1960s? Let's look at this 1967 video from CBS's The 21st Century!

News anchorman Walter Cronkite is giving viewers a tour of what was thought to be a perfect example of a home in 2001. He looks at various rooms of the home, including the living room, kitchen, and most importantly, the home office.

Never Set Foot in an Office Again!
Working at home was a thing of the future to the people of the 1960s, but is pretty commonplace in today's world. Earlier in this episode of The 21st Century, it was mentioned that the goal of these technological advancements was to make life easier for people. Cronkite even made the daring prediction that the work week would be reduced to 30 hours thanks to the new technology dramatically increasing workplace productivity. He predicted that this change would allow the working man to more fully enjoy the latest technology.

Cronkite's prediction was spot on, in a sense. The average worker can accomplish most of their work at home, but capitalism doesn't reward increased productivity with personal time for the worker. Instead, the revenue generated only rewards the company they work for.

News Via Satellite! Wow!
This is one thing that The 21st Century hit right on the head - the prediction of the Internet. He imagines a contraption that relays information all around the world by using a satellite, which is essentially what the Internet is. Everyone is connected!

This same console that gathers news from around the world has a separate monitor for checking stocks and weather reports, but in this day and age, we have a pocket-sized piece of technology that blows Cronkite's bulky consoles out of the water - the smartphone! Even the people of 2001 wouldn't have believed it if they hadn't lived to see the day they were created.

Print Dial? Best Thing Since Sliced Bread!
In 1967, the best way to consume news was to pick up the morning printed newspaper. The home office console would come equipped to print a full-sized newspaper that could be stored for permanent reference. We don't know about you, but if you kept a copy of every newspaper you received for fifty years, that would be... well, a lot of paper. And a lot of wasted space. And a fire hazard. Most technology these days exists to help companies go paperless.

Seriously, how about that sliced bread? It's been around since 1928, and it's still more useful than a "print dial".

Video Chat - Predicted in 1967!
The concept of video chat has been around for a long time, and the people of the 1960s were pretty sure that it would eventually surface in everyday technology. Star Trek, a popular science fiction television show, made use of this feature, and it was quickly popularized as an aspect of a futuristic utopian society.

Video conferencing is one of the most popular tools that modern companies use to communicate, and it is even widely available on smartphones. However, this technology hasn't caught on to the degree that the people of the 1960s expected. Anyone who has used video chat knows that it requires your full attention, and that sometimes it can be difficult to give that to someone when using a phone. The sad reality of our time is that we do not have time to slow down and have face-to-face conversations. Our days are packed to the brim, and if we slow down, we fall behind.

Working From Home? Yes Please!
Cronkite predicted that working from home would be a popular innovation, and he was right. Many people in today's workforce are able to work comfortably from their own homes. k_Street Consulting, LLC can set your business up for this innovation with mobile business solutions that connect your employees with the office while working remotely. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and cloud computing make it easy to communicate with these employees and collaborate on projects in real time.

Cronkite, and the CBS News team, might have had a few oversights, but they were right about a lot of today's technology. Will teleporting become a thing by 2067? Will time travel allow us to go back in time and fix mistakes? Will the futuristic office finally make use of print dial? All we can do is look to the future to find out.

Do you have any predictions for what the home office of 2067 will look like? We'd love to hear your opinions. Tell us in the comments!