Sep 23 2009Wow: AT&T Predicted The Future In 1993

...stupid firewall.

Was that Jenna Elfman?

Except that I can't remember the last time I saw a payphone, video or otherwise. Video conferencing, yes. Payphones? Obsolete.

they're all around and they're watching me.

i remember this commercial!!!! zomgz!!

All they did was rip off Tesla. He predicted all this at the turn of the 20th century. Way to ride the gravy train 100 YEARS LATER AT&T!!

@2
I noticed her too! I think that was her! I feel special! (read: horny)

Angry moo!

have you ever lost your job, "you will". the company that will make you is AT&T.

I am officially laid off 10/01/2009. up yours AT&T.

Is that Tom Selleck doing the voice-over? What happened to *him* in the future???

Have you ever beaten a hairless sloth to death, or killed a burglar with a samurai sword?

@11 you will

Have you ever heard Magnum P.I. Voice over a commercial? You won't after this one.

I like that AT&T was suposed to bring us all of these technologies but still only provides the backbone for them. I've never seen a GPS from AT&T. The medical history card is a really good idea, I can't believe we don't have anything like that. It will probably be more like a USB drive or flash card.

Hm...Touching your baby seems to be pretty important to AT&T, since it was the only thing that showed up in two commercials

omg, jenna elfman is the woman who tucks her baby in by phone..if only this commercial predicted Dharma & Greg's udder failure.

must find payphone baby

i must do as the mustache commands...

@8 & @all I think we should be more concerned about Mr. Mad Cow. He was fine yesterday and today he seems to be more angry or “Mad” if you will and although I don’t think we can catch mad cow disease I don’t think we want him infecting other animals. I propose we put him down.

On a lighter note… why do they call it PMS? … because Mad Cow disease was taken

Ever notice the AT&T logo looks a lot like the death star?

baa baa BAAAA oh yeah baaaaoohhoohh OHH BA BA BA BAAAA oh oh oh baaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.

I remember these

Now you did it! You pissed off Mr. Cow!

1:12

DJ from street fighter the movie anyone?

LOL... we still haven't seen all of those yet!

the onlything they didn't predict is that they wont be the ones to bring those to you

@9
send me your resume if you like.
thetaylored@gmail.com

How come the future doesn't look like Bladerunner?
http://www.theawesometrain.blogspot.com/

that baby has got to be 16 or older now, aka ready to party

Oink

That's David Duchovny doing the voiceover, not Tom Selleck.

If you don't believe me... you will.

@17
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To everyone saying at&t didn't bring you these things. Well, try having that video call without at&ts data infrastructure. You can't.

@ 29

Yeah, I thought that sounded like David Duchovny.

Tom Selleck is a good guess. I thought it was Jeff bridges (actually my first thought was hey isn't that the Big lebowski talking?)

I would just like to point out that Tom Selleck is a national treasure. I dare you to find anyone with that great of a mustache in those shorts. I would also like to add that Mr. Selleck is so freakin awesome he could have pulled it of with or with out the Ferrari.

There was another AT&T commercial similar to these in the same time frame that had a grocery store checkout lane where your entire cart went through and all the contents got tallied up at once... I don't recall that ever coming to fruition - guess that's why it isn't in the video.

Oh Mulder and his crackpot ideas. I only wish he had read those lines with just a little more paranoia.

Their future predicting abilities come from the fact that it takes a patent ten or more years to go from idea to entering the market. Anyone who browses the USPTO site with a reasonable taste for what will/won't succeed can predict what the next five or ten years will be like.

Interesting that AT&T nailed widescreen LCD technology (rather primitive, perhaps a bad lipid structure derivative) but not high definition (T=1:41) as a demonstration. Even more interesting is that (technologically-speaking) the means isn't the limiting factor but whether or not these products could turn an immediate profit; at the time. Obviously R&D cost stem the profit that would otherwise be made on the status quo, but the demand would drive said losses down and consequently lower price rather fast. Sad how nothing on this planet gets done (implemented) unless money changes hands to keep the "due" chasing the "iou" cycle rolling.

Moo

Wrarrrgghhh

Where did Jazz come from? C'mon!

@39 Mr. Cow has gotten rid of his mad cow disease. Thank god i thought we were going to have to put you down

Getting executives to the beach has been and always will be the driving force of communication technology.

DJ from Street Fighter! FTW!

@41
From Cybertron, of course.

I remember these commercials well. Whenever I'm on a conference call at work that is winding down, someone invariably asks if there are any questions. I usually ask, "Where did jazz come from?" nobody gets the joke.

looks like Juwanna Mann, man.

"Have you ever eaten electric corn?...You will." Thank you Letterman.

yes, well i was aware of these possibilities back then as a fledgling web developer. i am not rocket scientist. it's all obvious to those of us who read half decent science fiction books. catch up.

Hasanyone taken a dump yet today? You will. Where did jazz come from anyway? That's a great question.

@13

We do have medical history cards somewhat like that, but BETTER. I saw them at CVS the other day. They're wallet size and have a fold out usb thingamajigger. I'm so getting one.

They missed the whole cell phone thing, apparently. And they're a phone company? Go figure...

http://alturl.com/obg7

@53, AT&T is still missing the whole cell phone thing, apparently.

Anyway -- The Future: it looks nightmarish.

i'm pretty sure David Fincher directed some/most of these.

mmm... anyone hear of Bell Labs? It's part of AT&T... they do R&D, and have been doing it for more than 60 years... the guys that invented the transistor, that led to the microchip, that led to PC's... They knew what they were talking about, they were inventing the technology.