How Things Work

Flipping through How Things Work, Volume 7, it's easy to see that everything is very out of date (this is the 1979 edition after all), there are a few things that the future generations of the 21st century will never learn about and a few things that are too over simplified by today's standards.




Even though vinyl has made a big comeback in the last few years I doubt little kids right now will be interested in collecting large amounts of records and storing them in their rooms when they can download the equivalent and put it on an Ipod. Kids can use their laptops to record their own podcasts, produce their own albums, and make their own movies.

And the cassette tape is experiencing a big comeback in the crafting world; hundreds of poor retro tapes have been pulled apart, cut up, glued together, and and reassembled in the name of art. No one now actually thinks of a cassette as some that can actually, gasp, play music!



I don't think there is a little kid right now who has ever used a phone that's bigger that a PS3, way heavier and has to be plugged into a wall. I'm surprised the picture isn't of a rotary phone. Some people in their late 20's and 30's are buying the retro remakes of these phones for nostalgic reasons, but I don't think the new generations want a phone they can't put in their pocket.





This write up and explanation of how a computer works is very dated, of course when this was first written everything shown was cutting edge. I think most elementary students today have more technical savvy and experience than any of the men in the photos, it just goes to show how quickly technology has advanced.

The 20th century was the fastest evolving technology wise, think about it. In 1900 our grandparents and great grandparents were excited about getting a telephone in their house and still getting around town in a horse and buggy, the year 2000 everyone in the world are emailing each other and video conferencing and excited about AI and nano technology. What will the future generations think about our primitive gadgets?


BONUS
I immediately remembered this picture from when I was little. When I first saw it all I could think of was, "That's a kid's BUTT! You can show a kid's butt, that's WRONG!". Now all I can think of is, "That's a bad attempt at overlaying an illustration of a kid onto a photo of a bathroom. Why couldn't the illustrator just draw the kid AND bathroom?"!