The Future 'Just' Happened

June 4, 2006 9:06 AM

The Future Just HappenedA series of four BBC programmes about the internet from five years ago watchable online (via pre-broadband 56k real) that provide a snapshot of a time when AOL was 'at the heart of the new world', Marillion were releasing music through fan subscriptions and Monica Lewinsky was talking about how she didn't trust email anymore. Amazing.
posted by feelinglistless (9 comments total)

I own the book of the same name. Been gathering dust unread since I bought it.
posted by fire&wings at 9:27 AM on June 4, 2006

TBH these were horribly silly and a little outdated at the time, I doubt 5 years could make them that much worse.
posted by Artw at 9:32 AM on June 4, 2006

Five years ago I had been telling people that using AOL was stupid for at least five years.

(Monica is still hot though; I don't care what anyone says.)
posted by bingo at 10:41 AM on June 4, 2006

Someone showed me this a while back. She looks pretty good there, I admit. But around the time of the big mess when they were showing her mug on TeeVee all the time? BLEH. I'm guessing she is a plastic surgery (and diet) success story.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 11:09 AM on June 4, 2006

Hm, weretable, I think she looks horrible in that picture. I much prefer the way she looked back in the day...the apex being the portrait on the cover of her book (shown on her wikipedia page). She also looked quite good on the 'Monica in Black and White' HBO special.
posted by bingo at 11:26 AM on June 4, 2006

Marillion are still releasing music through fan subscription. It's turned out quite well for them.
posted by PenDevil at 11:27 AM on June 4, 2006

Five years ago I still had an AOL account to use as a dial-up connection when traveling; now I have a wireless card.
posted by Tenuki at 12:33 PM on June 4, 2006

Somewhat related is the 1997 episode of This American Life - "Tales from the Net" - that was recently rebroadcast.
posted by Staggering Jack at 2:38 PM on June 4, 2006

I [heart] gopher and WAIS, and yeah, from the first time I saw Monica, I thought she was attractive.

Back in the day, AOL was great because of all the content they had and the fact that the Web was new enough that there wasn't nearly as much content on there, and it wasn't as easy to find. I schoolteacher I know, for example, liked the resources for teachers.

I haven't touched an AOL account since probably 1999 or so. I'm getting the impression that it's basically still "training wheels" for people who are starting to learn about online computing but aren't ready for headlong, full-on Web usage.

I wonder if something similar will start happening to cable TV in another decade or so?
posted by pax digita at 3:03 AM on June 5, 2006