Video of Cray 1 and other artifacts...

[Chuck Guzis]

On 6 Nov 2007 at 15:16, der Mouse wrote:

> No worse than any future-projection fiction's blind spot, in that they
> can't imagine technology that isn't, well, imagined yet.

The problem is that there were indeed technologies (not widely 
deployed, granted) didn't look like a jug-in-a-box when most of this 
stuff was penned.  Thin-profile CRTs were a laboratory reality (used 
a side-shooting electron gun and an array of wires to deflect the 
beam, for example).  Nor was plasma display anything particularly out 
of the mind's reach.  Rear-projection displays, etc. were long 
realities.

Even after systems using plasma displays had been deployed (think the 
70's PLATO terminal), futurists were still fixated on the jug.

Cheers,
Chuck