This "future of news" news report from 1981 invites us to imagine sitting down with our morning cup of coffee and getting the news from our computers (it only takes two hours to transmit the day's paper, at $5/hour on the dialup network).
This is pretty much the epitome of what's wrong with corporate futurism: it assumes that things will change in a way that enhances the corporation's ability to get the job done (which, of course, it does), but without changing things in ways that enhance the world's ability to clobber the corporation's bottom line.
Other examples:
* The Internet will enable us to deliver pay-on-demand movies to our viewers' homes (but it won't let them get those movies without paying for them)
* The Internet will enable us to save money on our long-distance trunks (but it won't let callers bypass the tariff-based telephone system altogether)
* The Internet will enable the police to coordinate international investigations (but it won't let criminals coordinate their activities to evade the police)
Add your own to the comment thread, below: entirely notional, valueless prizes will be awarded for especially juicy examples!
How the Future of Online News Looked in 1981
(via Futurismic)
Update: Mark did this back in January (I was away that weekend!), but I still want to hear your answers!
