How We Live Today

Each terminal is linked via GPO telephone line to the central computer in London ... TV screens will get bigger while the set will get slimmer ... Millions will travel abroad for holidays ... People will be able to access their cash from banks remotely ... you can use this system to access any number anywhere that you might be able to from your office phone.


Predictions of the future in Britain from the sixties and seventies, from the BFI's archive via BBC4. Charming footage, and surprisingly accurate in many cases. Was particularly struck by the language the computer teacher was using while addressing his class back in the seventies, such as logging in and getting online. It feels like an anachronism. But then that's the joy of these films – how spot-on some of them are in predicting trends, while others fall rather wide of the systems we have ended up with (such as the cashpoint).

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