1979: Will WORD PROCESSORS start a HOME WORKING revolution? | Past Predictions | BBC Archive

Luke Casey examines the impact of the microprocessor in the workplace. Already, the adoption of word processors and text editing software in offices has been shown to provide massive efficiency boosts. Could sophisticated networking systems - using existing telephone wires to allow microprocessors to communicate with one another - spell the end of office work altogether, enabling employees to work effectively from home?

There is some remarkably prophetic stuff in this report.

This clip is from Nationwide, originally broadcast 11 December, 1979.

00:00 The inefficient office
01:14 What is a word processor?
02:44 Floppy disks
03:15 Wordplex system in Bradford Council
04:24 Home working with networked word processors
07:05 Micropad
07:54 Author Cy Enfield's Microwriter
09:29 The end of the Industrial Revolution?

You have now entered the BBC Archive, an audiovisual time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of TV to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic clips from the BBC vaults.

[VicodinElmo]

The fact that young couples could just choose a house and come to the council for a mortgage is the most surprising thing to me!

[tommypyatt]

I aspire to one day have a well equipped kitchen, two children, and a bubble memory terminal.

[FoxDren]

People where successfully working from home even back then yet managers still refuse to accept it

[TweedSuit]

1979: Will WORD PROCESSORS start a HOME WORKING revolution?
2020: No. But a global pandemic will.
2023: Back in the office again…

[AntGeezer]

I love how he had to write a bit of code to change one word. Just wonderful.

[alanpods______]

"It's the biggest aid to totalitarianism you could ever come across, if you think about it... On the other hand its the greatest boon to decentralization and people fulfilling themselves" Wow! How perfectly predicted.

[edum.]

the fact this is from 1979 is mindblowing, everything so precise and on point

[engineeredlifeform]

I had a massive argument with my Technology teacher in 1982 or '83. I'd said I was interested in being a computer programmer, he said 'no point, all the computer programs we'll ever need will have been written within five years'. I'd argued that computers would become ubiquitous, as they were getting smaller and cheaper, he said we just wouldn't need them that much. The cellphone in my pocket is more powerful and has more storage than the room full of computers I looked after around 1990, ....

[SwazersC]

Pretty impressive considering this was in the late 70s & they were already talking about voice recognition tech & working from home remotely. The dude talking about consoles in the home was on the money for sure & his comments on getting it wrong & tyranny were scaringly accurate. I was born in 72. As kids, we fantasised about the kind of tech that's now taken for granted.

[DeusExAstra]

This video is so prophetic, it's remarkable. It's like they were getting ready for 2020 way back then and didnt realize it.

[Vassilika]

4:57 thumbs up for the person who installed the plate, all screw heads in the same direction.... Thank you, I love it!

[audnu]

I love the color tone of videos from 60s and 70s.

[Nightweaver]

This was made the year I was born. It's amazing to see just how far computing has come in the last 43 years, from cumbersome central hard disks and awkward, slow word processors to supercomputers you hold in your hand and connection speeds so fast you can download the entire Library of Congress in a few seconds.

[leandrotami]

I am really, really amazed at how current and foreshadowing this turned out to be. Programming remotely from
home... in the 70s! The analysis of a society where remote work slowly becomes more and more common... I'm astonished

[davidkmatthews]

Brilliant bit of history! The "F International" company referred to actually started up in the early 1960s, employing mostly female programmers working from home. They built up a strong worldwide reputation for excellence.

I seem to recall that using a telephone in 1979 cost around four pence per minute (16 pence in today's money), so I imagine they'd have to use the dial-in connection sparingly in order to avoid racking up hefty bills with Buzby!

[StefanMilner]

I'm 21 and these archives are so fascinating, the world was such a different place back then, this report portrays so well how revolutionary being able to go back and edit text you've typed was, even typing this comment I've made plenty of typos.

[RagHelen]

Somehow the information that you can correct typos easily before sending the text out was lost somewhere in the past 43 years.

[effess]

5:05 "Just look at the French..." presumably he's referring to Minitel, a precursor to the world wide web, which was being rolled out around the time of this programme, and amazingly survived until 2012

[alanjrobertson]

About halfway through they actually make some pretty good predictions about working from home and the Internet! The alternative keyboard not so much...

[CaptainX]

I love that you are uploading this old stuff, keep up the good work!