

AT&T posts semi-futurist video about the melding of computers and telecommunications


While Al Gore may not have "invented the Internet", he did claim to introduce the term "information superhighway" in a 1978 presentation to computer industry officials (at least according to Wikipedia). One of the first printed references to the phrase came from the Jan. 3, 1983, issue of Newsweek, in which it referenced "… information superhighways being built of fiber-optic cable will link Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. in a 776-mile system on the East Coast."

Today, AT&T has posted an 18-minute film from 1985, called "The Information Age", in which we might have the earliest video evidence of the term. Check out the film at the 7:20 mark, where the narrator discusses the superhighways of information.

The film itself includes a bunch of history of the computer and communications industry, as well as a bunch of future predictions from scientists. While one prediction about people's ability to beam themselves like Star Trek haven't come true yet, there is a prediction of people being able to talk to their computers and get information, just like Siri and other voice assistants do today.

I also enjoyed the so-awesome 1980s graphics and animations, although the synthesizer background music got annoying after a while. The end of the film gets a little preachy and political as well.



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