Tell us about your first time...

[jmwhite33]

experiencing new technology.

I'm old and have more than a few stories, but this has to be the most interesting and unique.

 

42 years ago I worked at a tropical fish store in Southern Ca.. One day I was tasked with going to a customers house to help sort out a problem with his fish.

This guy was early-mid 30's, quirky and eccentric, money wasn't really an issue, he had non-stop energy and always had a magic trick ready to perform. (WTF??? type of magic stuff)

I go to his house with him, he opens the door, tells his house (don't recall the actual name he used) to open the drapes and turn on lights in specific rooms.

The house verbally responded and carried out the requested tasks!?!

My jaw was on the floor.

He then gave me a brief explanation and demonstrated more stuff the system could do.

His name was/is Gus Searcy and along with a friend from IBM invented the first smart home system.

In 1986 it was commercially released as "The Butler in a Box" and was the first interactive "smart-home" system.

One of the prototypes (maybe even the system that I experienced, who knows) currently resides in the Smithsonian Institute.

 

I'm not claiming any crap concerning myself about this, literally haven't seen the guy in 40 years, just that I was lucky enough to be one of the first humans to experience something that many millions now take for granted.

Alexa and Siri, ppfffff, you're just newbie hacks.

 

 

maybe next the first time hearing actual streaming audio in 1998

[NumLock21]

Doorbell cameras existed back in the late 1980s. Wireless headsets in the mid 1990s. Everything we have now, like the door bell camera and wireless headsets already existed back then. 

[kila]

my parents got a whole theatre set for the living room when i was a kid and i was blown away by watching vhs, bluray (first time) and dvds with perfect audio and on an amazing tv.

[wasab]

Amazon fresh walkout stores amazed me until they closed them down because it turnes out their AI check out tech was faked. They hired Indians to watch camera and manually determined what items you grabbed.