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10 Everyday Things That Were Impossible 20 Years Ago

And what couldn’t we do in libraries twenty years ago …?

THE FUTURE IS NOW: 10 Everyday Things That Were Impossible 20 Years Ago

“1. Your entire music collection in your pocket.
2. Calling around the world for pennies per minute.
3. Worthwhile hybrid cars.
4. 64-bit processors.
5. Burning a CD or DVD.
6. A huge repository for the world’s video content.
7. Internet over the air.
8. Producing a movie in your living room.
9. DVR technology.
10. Practical Jetsons-style video chat.”

Stephen

Posted on: July 5, 2011, 3:54 pm Category: Uncategorized

By: admin

3 comments

3 Responses

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  1. librarianbryan said
    on July 5, 2011 4:07 pm

    The relative ease of video chat pretty much makes my day everyday.

  2. Robert Noise said
    on July 5, 2011 6:14 pm

    And how many of these things have improved our lives? Significantly? At all?

  3. admin said
    on July 5, 2011 6:25 pm

    Noisy Bob:

    Most of these are technologies to stay more connected to people – those we love or these we want to know better and stay in touch with. I’ve found a significant improvement in my life by being more connected to the various tribes, families and groups that I’m part of. The more we talk, communicate and share the better the world is in my own world view. For the hermits, extreme introverts, anonymous commenters, and iconoclasts, I’m sure they’ve noticed little if any difference or improvement. Indeed they may feel lonelier.

    As for the music in my hip pocket on my MP3 player and iPhone, I have reconnected to music and culture immeasurably. I don’t drive so I don’t have time to easily listen to radio. I now download the music I like and play it often on planes and everywhere. It has been a blessing to connect to well loved music and new music and musicians through iTunes Genius and Pandora. I feel more connected to culture and the role it plays in making life fun and better. It certainly trumps the old scratchy ghettoblaster or transistor radio of my youth.

    I travel a lot so doing video calls on Skype or iPhone4 with the kids, friends and spouse is great. So much better than just voice.

    So I see significant improvements for me personally with nearly all of these.

    SA