Newton the Household Robot (1989)

Ablestmage.com (via Waxy.org) points us to terrific video of a personal household robot named Newton. "He" was marketed by the company SynPet in 1989 with this VHS promotional video.

If you do nothing else, (in the short time we have here on Earth), at least skip ahead to minute 6:20 in the video. The Newton theme song just became the unofficial theme song of the Paleo-Future blog.

This is Newton. Technologically advanced, user-friendly, and practical. In future homes, personal robots will be commonplace. Newton, by SynPet, brings the future home to you.

[Cue awesome theme song]

You'll be amazed what he can do!
Meet Newton.
Where future and fun go together!
Meet Newton.
He'll be your friend forever! Whenever!
Meet Newton.
He'll be a part of your family!
Meet Newton.
He's a helping hand through technology!
He's a dream come true, bringing the future home to you! He's watching you!
Meet Newton.
Newton!

The still images above were stolen from Megadroid.com, which has more great photos of the Newton.

I've rambled about robot servants on more than a few occasions, but what do you think? Why haven't personal household robots such as these found a market?

See also:
Maid Without Tears (1978)
The Future of Personal Robots (1986)
Robo-Shop (1989)
Japanese Retail Robots (1986)
In a Cashless Future, Robots Will Cook (1996)

Auto-Tutor (1964)

This "auto-tutor" from the 1964 World's Fair is very similar in concept to the "homework machine" we looked at from 1981. The photo above can be found in the Official Souvenir Book of the 1964 New York World's Fair.

AUTOMATED SCHOOLMARM
The Autotutor, a U.S. Industries teaching machine, is tried out by visitors to the Hall of Education. It can even teach workers to use other automated machines.

See also:
Homework in the Future (1981)
The Answer Machine (1964)
Learning in 1999 A.D. (1967)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 7, 1993)
The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)
Closer Than We Think! (1958-1963)

GTE's Classroom of the Future (1987)

GTE's 1987 concept video Classroom of the Future envisions a bright future for voice synthesis, speech recognition and insanely small monitors. Will's acting career, however, holds less promise.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

See also:
Classroom of the Future (Part 1, 1987)
Classroom of the Future (Part 2, 1987)
Classroom of the Future (Part 3, 1987)
Homework in the Future (1981)
The Answer Machine (1964)
The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)
Closer Than We Think! (1958-1963)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 7, 1993)

Classroom of the Future (Part 3, 1987)

Without further ado, the third and final part of the 1987 concept video, Classroom of the Future.

See also:
Classroom of the Future (Part 1, 1987)
Classroom of the Future (Part 2, 1987)
Homework in the Future (1981)
The Answer Machine (1964)
The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)
Closer Than We Think! (1958-1963)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 7, 1993)

Classroom of the Future (Part 2, 1987)

Part 2 of the 1987 concept video Classroom of the Future is fairly accurate in depicting what the Internet would eventually allow people to do. Again, the voice synthesis and recognition seem superfluous.

See also:
Classroom of the Future (Part 1, 1987)
Homework in the Future (1981)
The Answer Machine (1964)
The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)
Closer Than We Think! (1958-1963)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 7, 1993)

Classroom of the Future (Part 1, 1987)

The 1987 GTE concept video Classroom of the Future demonstrates videophone technology as an essential tool in making people more productive. Sadly, it doesn't seem like kids of the future are any more intelligent. Check out part one of this paleo-futuristic gem.

See also:
Homework in the Future (1981)
The Answer Machine (1964)
The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)
Closer Than We Think! (1958-1963)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 7, 1993)

Future Without Football (Daily Review, 1976)

An article in the April 6, 1976 Daily Review (Hayward, California) ran with the headline, "Students see future without football."

The 21st century will see the demise of football, a cure for cancer and cities under the sea, according to some bright ninth grade students.

A special "futurology" class at suburban Milford Junior High School also figured the next century will mean bigger government control over more people, a solution to air pollution and new mass transit systems.

The 17 "gifted students" at Milford reached their conclusions after interviewing government and research firm officials, visiting universities and taking several other field trips. Four teachers who helped design the course also are writing a group PhD thesis about the experience.

Student group projects included models of an underwater city, a 21st century home, airport and school. One group designed a 21st century game to be played by two persons in a small cubicle to save space.

"Football won't exist because space will be short," said teacher Ronald Herbers.

In explaining to parents what the "futurology" project was about, the teachers explained, "We hope to help them (students) see that the future is not uncontrollable."

See also:
Sport in Space Colonies (1977)
Olympic Games on the Moon in 2020 (1979)

Homework in the Future (1981)

Forget jetpacks, Martian colonies and floating cities. We may have found the most astonishing claim made by anyone of the paleo-future. According to the 1981 book School, Work and Play (World of Tomorrow), in the future, homework will be fun! Upon hearing the news every child of the early 1980s choked on their bologna sandwich.

Learning by computer in the future will be fun. This computer is displaying a chemistry experiment for the older child and arithmetic problems for the younger one. The computer controls include light pens to draw on the screens. The chemistry student has done something wrong and has caused an explosion!

See also:
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 7, 1993)
The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)

Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 7, 1993)

With concepts like "linking to the Education Center in Washington, D.C." AT&T clearly had ideas about the infrastructure of the Internet that didn't quite pan out.

Part 7 of the 1993 video Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future gives us a glimpse of a computer-centered classroom where kids can learn at their own pace, thanks to digital teachers.

See also:
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 1, 1993)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 2, 1993)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 3, 1993)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 4, 1993)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 5, 1993)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 6, 1993)
The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)

Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 5, 1993)

Continuing our series of clips from the 1993 video Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future, today we have part 5. Practicing medicine over picturephone, personal computer assistants and a glimpse of the classroom of the future are just a few of the paleo-futuristic wonders featured in this clip and clips to come.

See also:

Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 1, 1993)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 2, 1993)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 3, 1993)
Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future (Part 4, 1993)
The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)

The Road Ahead: Future Classroom (1995)

The 1995 book The Road Ahead by Bill Gates included a CD-ROM with video of what the classroom of the future would look like.



The paleo-future of 1995 is filled with ethnically diverse students academically engaged by the high-tech presentations of their fellow classmates. The teacher brings the class to attention by telling them to "get off the net." Every child has a diverse array of technology at their disposal. The keyboard Mr. Ballard uses is the most confusing of the supposed advances we see in the video.

(Is it just me or was "Mr. Ballard's" presentation completely devoid of useful information?)

A special thanks to Valleywag, who inspired the search for this paleo-futuristic video.