This video was made by AT&T for the 1962 world's fair in Seattle. AT&T had a popular exhibit called "The World of Tomorrow" which provided a glimpse into what the future might hold in terms of phone technology and communication. The exhibit was a showcase of some of the most advanced technologies and concepts that AT&T was working on at the time in association with its Bell Labs division. It provided visitors with an immersive experience that was designed to make them feel like they were stepping into a world of science fiction.

One of the main attractions of the exhibit were demonstrations that showed how people might communicate in the future. These demonstrations included video phones which allowed people to see and talk to each other in real-time and electronic mail which allowed people to send messages instantly over long distances. AT&T also showcased a "picturephone" that allowed people to see live video feeds of events happening in other parts of the world.

In addition to these communication technologies, the exhibit also featured demonstrations of other futuristic concepts, such as a "robot secretary" that could take dictation and type out letters, and a "home of the future" that was fully automated and featured voice-activated appliances and other conveniences.

One of the most famous predictions was made by AT&T's president at the time, John D. Kraus, who said that "in a few years, men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face." This statement was based on the belief that advances in technology would allow people to use their phones to transmit images, video, & other forms of data.

I was in college at this time & thrilled by the idea of a picture phone. The idea was to allow people to see each other while they talked on the phone which was seen as a revolutionary new form of communication that would bring people closer together.
Despite the initial excitement around the concept, however, the picture phone failed to gain widespread adoption, and it ultimately never became the ubiquitous technology that AT&T had envisioned. There were several reasons why this was the case:

The cost of the technology. The early picture phones were expensive to produce, and the service was expensive to use, which made it inaccessible to many people. Additionally, the technology was complex and required a lot of bandwidth, which made it difficult to transmit over the existing telephone network.

The user experience. While the idea of seeing the person you were talking to was appealing in theory, in practice, the early picture phones produced low-quality video that was often blurry and difficult to make out. This made the experience less than ideal, and many people preferred to stick with traditional phone calls.

The issue of privacy. Many people were uncomfortable with the idea of being seen while they talked on the phone, and they preferred to maintain a sense of anonymity and distance in their conversations.

Another technology that AT&T spoke about back then was electronic mail. What an idea! It was initially proposed by a researcher Ray Tomlinson who was working at Bell Labs.
Tomlinson's original idea was to create a messaging system that would allow people to send short, text-based messages to each other using the existing computer networks that were being developed at the time. His idea was based on the concept of the "mailboxes" that were used by telephone operators to store messages for subscribers who were not available.

Over time Tomlinson began to refine the concept of electronic mail, developing new protocols and standards that would make it easier to send and receive messages over long distances. By the late 1960s, the first rudimentary forms of e-mail were beginning to emerge, and they were quickly embraced by researchers and scientists who were looking for new ways to collaborate and share information.

Other predictions made by AT&T in the 20th century about the 21st century included the idea that phones would become more compact and portable, with the company envisioning a "pocket-sized" phone that could be carried around easily. AT&T also predicted that phones would become more integrated with computers and that they would be able to access information from around the world through a "telephonic network" that would link together people and machines in a global information network.

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David Hoffman filmmaker