Radios: here is the pix...

[The Daring Dufas]

It's interesting that with the very old stuff like that rectifier tube, you can actually see it working. Think of the old reel to reel computer tape drives and a solid state drive of today. You really can't call it a hard drive because it has no moving parts and you can't see it working. I remember being able to see the movement of the stepper motor moving the heads on an old MFM hard drive I had in an IBM PC. I'm not going to live long enough to see automobiles without wheels. The darn things will probably fly or be magnetically levitated. The movement of technology is making things faster and smaller but if there is some calamity that knocks out the supporting infrastructure, it's the old clunky stuff that will be the only things that will work. ^_^

TDD

[Stormin Mormon]

(snip some text)

You can adjust the flue on your wood stove with a big hammer, while the wife cranks up another bucket of water from the well. Meanwhile, rest of the world sits in front of black screens and wonders when it comes back on.

[philoÂÂ]

What I really like is looking at those old magazines from the 50's

and seeing drawings of all the atomic powered rocket cars we were going to have by 1984.

Nothing like heating your room in the winter with the warm glow of vacuum tubes. They were not so great in the summer though.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, IMO. high tech stuffs make people dumb and dumber. That is bad part.

[The Daring Dufas]

Old magazines from that era like Popular Science, Mechanics Illustrated and Popular Mechanics always had articles about what the future would be like. Sadly, Mechanics Illustrated died in 2001 but the other two soldier on. Back then, most science fiction writers couldn't imagine what the world would be like in 2014 but I keep seeing things in old SciFi movies and TV shows that have become reality today. Of course there is the communicator from the original Star Trek TV series that reminds me of the early cellphones then Star Trek The Next Generation, had what looked like iPads everywhere and video communications terminals. I read a number of SciFi books and magazines that had stories about a world wide communications network much like today's internet and that was years before anything like it was even experimental. ^_^

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

There was a story in a SciFi magazine I read many years ago written by one of the old great science fiction writers, who's name escapes me, about a time traveler from the past or a fellow who had been frozen in the past then revived in then future. The guy was bewildered by the people who had something akin to an iPhone and had to use it to answer any question or perform any simple mathematics. The handheld computers were connected to a huge central computer which provided them with all the information they needed. The future man was dependent on the hand held computer and couldn't function without it. Does it remind you of anything? ^_^

TDD

[DerbyDad03]

Some videos from the Science Channel series "Prophets Of Science Fiction" can be seen here:

Lots of stuff that the Sci Fi authors of yesteryear dreamt up are things that we all take for granted.

[Stormin Mormon]

Hang on, while I google that on my smart phone.....

[philoÂÂ]

Sounds like an Asimov story.

All I ever did was read sci-fi and believed it could all come true.

Then in 1964 a read a story and Asimov went waaay to far and I knew it was all just a big fantasy...and I stopped reading sci-fi

sheesh, a desktop computer ? That will never happen!

[philoÂÂ]

The "flip" phone was done purposely like that. It was modeled on the "communicator" in Start Trek.

I also think that those clothing predictors of the 50's with all their advanced predictions about clothing...would be pretty surprised to see that in the 21st century people are walking around with their underwear hanging out. What a let down they'd have.

[krw]

I think the belt around the knees would surprise them, too.

[The Daring Dufas]

Dey be dragin. Would those futurists understand a new language that had taken over a lot of English dialog such as Ebonics? ^_^

TDD