I met a retired work colleague for coffee this week. Stan, my first manager in the industry, retired from his engineering role in the Telecommunications industry 15 years ago and at the age of 81 years still maintains an active interest in the technologies in this sector.
When he moved into the retirement home, he may have had to give away his beloved Ham Radio interest, but he updated that network of friends with new ones on Twitter, Skype and Facebook.
Over the course of an hour, and a couple of lattes, Stan regaled me with stories about magneto phones (crank phones) and manual exchanges, telephone switches (the brains of an automatic exchange) and jumper running, video conferencing and mobile access radio (MAR).
Our chat confirmed for me that the telecommunication vision of the 1960s and 1970s that his generation aspired to has still not come to pass. He also gently reminded me that all new technologies have ancestors.
In 1969, the Post Office Research Station in England made an 8 minute film to predict what the future of telecommunications may be like. From a technology perspective, it is a great reminder of how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go. It is hard to believe it, but forty years later we are still working to get some of these technologies integrated into our daily lives.
Filed under: Musings, Technology, Telecommunicatons
