When I was putting away this year’s Christmas decorations, I happened to look at one of the old, crumpled-up pieces of paper that has been used for packing to store the decorations for years. It was an article from the January, 1970 issue of Modern Mechanix magazine. I don’t know if the magazine is even in publication any more, but I remember reading it years ago. Here’s a bit of the article — remember, the year is 1970…..
“Computers for the home have been envisioned by science fiction writers and engineers ever since a huge, unwieldy prototype was developed 25 years ago. The whole futuristic age they prophesied, with an omnipotent electronic monster named Horace in every living room, is still a long way from realization, but compact consumer computers have quietly entered the household. While the market hardly rivals TV sets or refrigerators, the computer-as-home-appliance is now more than just a toy for the wealthy or a mysterious instrument for technical specialists.
Those pioneer families who have one, like the Theodore Rodmans of Ardmore, Pa., have discovered their obedient machine can perform a large variety of useful functions. Dr. Rodman originally brought it home for medical research, but then his family found it could also plan mortgage payments, help out with homework, even play with the children. Although the cost is still high, computers like theirs have come within possible reach of a two-car family budget. A small, self-contained model is available for $8,000, complete. The Rodmans’ computer system, called time-sharing, uses a Teletype terminal connected to a big central unit via telephone. It costs $110 a month to rent, plus $7.50 per hour of use.”
The article goes on to describe how the family used the computer — so much that Dr. Rodman had trouble getting the computer to use for his medical project. The article concludes with a quote from Mrs. Rodman, “When the medical project is over, we’ve decided to buy our own terminal. It’s certainly a better investment that an automobile.”
I’m not sure what the point of this is — maybe that the world has changed, but we all know that… maybe that our kids would read the article and not even believe that people could live like that. Or, maybe we should clean out all the old packing material around our Christmas decorations — that was a current magazine when we started using it for packing. I think I’ll start reading all the old papers protecting our Christmas treasures every year when I get them out — I might discover all sorts of thing… like maybe even some day we can put a man on the moon….
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