The Cashless Society, As Predicted In 1967.

Here's a clip from the BBC popular science program Tomorrow's World from 1967, talking about how the future will become a cashless society. It's interesting to see that the very first debit-card system shown on the program used PINs rather than signatures to authorize.

Unfortunately, the BBC iPlayer can't be embedded like most online videos, so here's a link to the excerpt in question.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/tomorrowsworld/8012.shtml

This is just one of a number of Tomorrow's World clips the BBC is making freely available online. There are some real gems on the site, including a first look at the "light-pen" from 1967, an early screen outing for the Moog synthesizer from 1969, and a demonstration of one of the first true mobile phone systems from 1979.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/tomorrowsworld/index.shtml

Oops, it seems not everyone can view the Online BBC Archive. For those who can't here's a couple of stills from the electronic banking and mobile phone segments mentioned above.

Love that funky retro dial! :lol:

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Mon Sep 14, 2009
Category: Futurism | Television | 1960s

Comments

I like reading old S/F. I'm currently doing some from 1941 and 42.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 09/14/09 at 09:10 AM

Unfortunately, I can't see the videos - they're "Not Available in Your Area". That happens a lot with British vids.

Posted by Leshka on 09/14/09 at 11:34 AM

same here leshka. it's neat to look back on yesterday's predictions for tommorrow.

Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 09/14/09 at 01:48 PM

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