A 1950s View of Home Computing

I like this!

This is a company's mock-up in 1954 of how a home computer might look in 2004.

What on earth those huge chrome wheels were going to do I've no idea but whilst the scientists at Rand Corporation admitted that such a computer would need technology not then invented, they thought the computer, using the FORTRAN language would be easy to use - though "not economically viable for most households..."

Predicting the future is fraught with pitfalls. In 1943 the chairman of IBM famously said "I think there will be a world market for maybe 5 computers".

As recently as 1999 his successor chair of IBM said "Picture a day when a billion people will interact with a million businesses via a trillion interconnected devices!" Oh... that didn't take long then...

And even the man himself, Bill Gates, once said in a quote that has been repeated so many times I just thought it was my turn... "640K (of RAM memory) ought to be enough for anybody."

Anyone care to give their view of technology in 2057?