Modern inventions have become the junk of today

ONE OF the most interesting exercises I do from time to time, is to look back at history and see what people were expecting from the future. Specially if that future is now. I was paging through a book of “modern” inventions that have changed the world. It was published by the Reader’s Digest in 1983.

One of the exciting inventions explored back then was the “videodisc”, which we know today as the DVD. The book explains how lasers are used to etch little pits on a disc and these are read by another laser. The prediction I liked was that these laser discs “may even become cheaper than videotape for recording movies”.

My guess is that few people today even know what a videotape is (or was). They were big, bulky things that took up a lot of storage space.

Even the DVD is becoming obsolete. An electronically clever friend sometimes lends me “memory sticks” which can be plugged into a TV set and contains 20 or 30 episodes of interesting series like the

filmed in Australia. That’s more than 12 hours of recorded movies that slip unobtrusively into my pocket with my small change. I can’t help wondering what the next form of recording will be.

The book also talks about the future of the amazing “fax machine” that can transmit messages and pictures over telephone lines. Obviously, it was seen as a great step forward in future communications.

I used to own a fax machine some time ago, but I gave it to a local charity shop when it became obsolete.

Now I just use my phone to photograph anything I need to send and it goes whooshing off to wherever I please – round the corner or round the world.

In fact, my phone has replaced many outdated devices in my life. I use it as a shopping list, a cooking timer, a road map, an alarm clock and even a remote gate opener. It keeps my diary and reminds me when I have appointments or invitations.

I may refer to it as my “phone”, but the one thing for which it is hardly ever used is as a telephone. Some inventions go back further that I realised. Did you know the first coin-operated vending machine was invented by the Greek engineer, Hero of Alexandria? In the 1st century AD, he produced a device to be installed at the entrance to a temple to sell holy water.

Unless we get rain soon we might be installing water-dispensing slot machines right here in the city where we regard all water as holy.

Last Laugh

Mary was chatting to a friend in the local cafe. “I feel really good today,” she said. “I always like to start my day by doing a good deed and this morning I gave a R200 note to a beggar.”

“Gosh!” said her friend, “that was very generous. What did your husband have to say about it?”

“He just said: ‘Thanks, Darling’.”