The 1960s Idea of 'The Home of 1999' | Flashback | History

In 1967, Philco-Ford produced a short film exploring what the "Home of the Future" might look like. We re-examine this film to see what they got right about the future - and what was wrong with the past.

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Season 1
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[gaiuscaligula]

They're pretty accurate to be honest, the Dad even has 3 monitors set up for the ultimate gaming experience.

[trbd]

Impressive how they predicted online classes down to the crippling boredom as reflected in James' entire body language

[yanapompom]

It's funny how they imagined this type of life to be cool and we are now sick of isolation, processed foods, instant meals, and too much screen time.

[davidbrown]

I can't wait till 1999 gets here.

[theheavy]

1:12 they even predicted online classes lol

[Real_Iron_Smith]

Shockingly accurate, they got online shopping, online communication, banking, classes... about the only thing they didn't predict was that all of those things would use one unified system, the internet.

[ModelosPR]

Narrator: "And here we see billy, hiding from his parents, watching shota manga on his mobile device."

[arkady]

In 1976, my 8th grade history teacher told us that one day our TV's would be like a framed a picture that we would actually hang on our walls to watch. Our families being owners of console TV's and Sony Trinotrons, we laughed. That said, this video is pretty darned accurate!

[mmmike]

These predictions weren't even bad. Most of them were quite accurate.

[Usaminanako]

1960 : I bet there will be flying cars in the future
2018: Eating tide pods challenge

[geoffk]

All things considered, they didn't do too badly. Remember that the Internet was years away, and computer networking was in a primitive state. Having even a single computer in a home was science fiction, as they cost as much as an average house.
Actually, the most amazing thing is that the "History Channel" showed some actual history, instead of nonsense about Ancient Astronauts and UFOs.

[rickrickrick]

I wonder what these actors in this film thought when they actually experienced 1999 and remembered this film

[ccandc]

Thats how you realize how technological advances are much easier to predict than social ones 😂

[Mike-pjkv]

They forgot to show that dad had to change his password again due to a security breach, but forgot his pin code.

[lifegonewrm]

It's funny because even though they are talking about a digitalized world, they are still very connected to the real world. Take the "online shopping" for example, in their scenario, they are looking at a video of the real world, the physical store is still involved, whereas currently with online shopping, you don't even need a physical store.

[Titus.]

And hear you find Jimmy watching “the hub” on his family central computer

[gianniiangianan]

Most of their computers are all in our smartphones lmao

[firefightervic]

We're living in the time people could only dream about and yet we can't stop fighting.

[reprovedcandy]

I love how the online store had absolutely no UI or even pricing information

[Barttoocool]

1960s: By 2020, flying cars
2020: Planes don't fly