Some people of the 50's had some crazy ideas about the future

[Road Runner]

As if....

[Airehead]

Interesting 

[Wilbur ★]

I saw that on reddit yesterday. We have had wireless phones a long time.  It was the cellular aspect that made it big.  

[late]

There was a famous cartoon in the 1930s that had phones on a wristwatch that also had tv so you could see who you were talking to.

Nice op-ed, but the idea had been kicking around for a while.

[Road Runner]

I think the thing that really grabbed me was the headline.  People in the early 50's were apparently already concerned about the intrusion of the phone into our daily lives.

[Ralphie ★]

2 minutes ago, Road Runner said:

I think the thing that really grabbed me was the headline.  People in the early 50's were apparently already concerned about the intrusion of the phone into our daily lives.

And rightly so!  That is a good reason that texting is so big, it doesn’t absolutely demand your attention right now. 

[AirwickWithCheese]

 

[Further]

When I was a kid, a couple years back, it was fairly common to have a loud bell or buzzer connected to the wall phone ringer, so as to be able to run into the house and answer the phone.

[Longjohn ★]

 Voice mail and answer machines were a wonderful invention. I can remember when my mom could not even imagine not answering the phone. Most of the time when I get a phone call I don’t even look at the phone to see who’s calling. I don’t even listen to all my voice mails. If it’s not a local number I ignore it.

[AirwickWithCheese]

 

[Road Runner]

I watched the whole thing.  That's a lot of intros.  

Things changed, but the phone was always ringing.  

[Razors Edge ★]

9 hours ago, late said:

There was a famous cartoon in the 1930s that had phones on a wristwatch that also had tv so you could see who you were talking to.

Nice op-ed, but the idea had been kicking around for a while.

Dick Tracy had a RADIO wristwatch. He didn't have a VIDEO wristwatch until a decade after that newspaper clip.

On January 13, 1946,^[10] the 2-Way Wrist Radio became one of the strip's most immediately recognizable icons, worn as a wristwatch by Tracy and members of the police force. This radio wristwatch inspired Martin Cooper's invention of the smartphone, and may have inspired later smartwatches.^[11]The 2-Way Wrist Radio was upgraded to a 2-Way Wrist TV in 1964.^[12] This development also led to the introduction of an important supporting character, Diet Smith, an eccentric industrialist who financed the development of this equipment. In a conspicuous coincidence, the idea of a radio built into a wrist watch played an important role in the story line of "Superman – The Talking Cat" broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System on January 9 through 28, 1946 (episodes 878 through 891).

In late 1948, a botched security detail led to the death of the semi-regular character Brilliant, the blind inventor of the 2-Way Wrist Radio (among other devices) whereupon Chief Brandon, Dick Tracy's superior on the police force and a presence in the strip since 1931, resigned in shame and Pat Patton was promoted to police chief in Brandon's place, previously having been Tracy's buffoonish partner. A new character was introduced named Sam Catchem to take Patton's place as Tracy's sidekick.

[late]

11 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

Dick Tracy had a RADIO wristwatch. He didn't have a VIDEO wristwatch until a decade after that newspaper clip.

On January 13, 1946,^[10] the 2-Way Wrist Radio became one of the strip's most immediately recognizable icons, worn as a wristwatch by Tracy and members of the police force. This radio wristwatch inspired Martin Cooper's invention of the smartphone, and may have inspired later smartwatches.^[11]The 2-Way Wrist Radio was upgraded to a 2-Way Wrist TV in 1964.^[12] This development also led to the introduction of an important supporting character, Diet Smith, an eccentric industrialist who financed the development of this equipment. In a conspicuous coincidence, the idea of a radio built into a wrist watch played an important role in the story line of "Superman – The Talking Cat" broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System on January 9 through 28, 1946 (episodes 878 through 891).

In late 1948, a botched security detail led to the death of the semi-regular character Brilliant, the blind inventor of the 2-Way Wrist Radio (among other devices) whereupon Chief Brandon, Dick Tracy's superior on the police force and a presence in the strip since 1931, resigned in shame and Pat Patton was promoted to police chief in Brandon's place, previously having been Tracy's buffoonish partner. A new character was introduced named Sam Catchem to take Patton's place as Tracy's sidekick.

Good one!

[MoseySusan]

Ray Bradbury called it all in Fahrenheit 451. Ear buds, wall sized television, talking doorbell, electing a President because his name sounds right. 

[Razors Edge ★]

46 minutes ago, late said:

Good one!

FTR, I thought the same thing as you, and immediately checked to see what Dick Tracy had on his watch.  Wiki cleared things up, but in my life, he had only ever had the video watch.

I do think, as soon as TV came around, folks were already mashing-up existing tech with that new tech, so I doubt the OP author was much different than many folks back then in imagining miniaturization and integration of new and old techs.

[maddmaxx ★]

I'm still waiting for my realistic, usable flying car.

[Mr. Silly]

This one wasn't too far off.

 

 

[Tizeye]

Who would even think of driving something like this. It has even outlived the Beetle. (Modernized to have the steering wheel on the correct side.)

 

[jsharr ★]

The ad below the article was about extending your car warranty

[MickinMD ★]

We 50's kids grew up with the Dick Tracy (police detective) comics in the newspapers.

He had a "wrist radio" which was basically today's cellphone.

Many of today's things were predicted in the 50's to 70's and every once in a while we get a movie or TV episode today that's clearly written by someone young where scene's from those decades are misrepresented by things the writers thought were unexpected by people from that time but they're wrong.

Anyone from those decades would have no trouble figuring out how to drive today's cars, use modern remote controls, program microwaves, etc.

But, back then they didn't imagine the layout of today's electronics, as shown by the antique looking (by today's standards) blinking lights, computer voices, etc. in the original Star Trek, etc.

[maddmaxx ★]

12 minutes ago, Mr. Silly said:

This one wasn't too far off.

 

 

The last pic exists now, not through loops but above the roadbed on magnetic lift.  This is the Shanghai Maglev train.  Riding that would be interesting.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a7/Transrapid_Shanghai_maglev_train_ride.webm/Transrapid_Shanghai_maglev_train_ride.webm.480p.vp9.webm