1993 video, Connections: AT&T's Vision of the Future, 14 minute video http://www.paleofuture.com/2007/04/connections-at-vision-of-...

"You Will" voiceovers by Tom Selleck of Magnum P.I. fame http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Selleck

With the promises of fiber everywhere in exchange for billions in tax breaks and subsidies that were never delivered on, leaving substantial portions of the country with only dial-up in 2008, I'd say they did as much to prevent these technologies as they did to bring them.

http://www.newnetworks.com/failedfiberstates.htm

It's also interesting how small a part (though they did participate) AT&T had in all of that innovation.

Two words: "Bell Labs".

I think the transistor might have had something to do with all of this innovation. Not to mention C++, wireless networking, and a sizeable fraction of the semiconductor process technology that makes modern electronics possible.

enjoyable. it's nice that we've gotten to the point where each of those possible uses is either so trivial that no one wants it (buying concert tickets from an ATM), or costs <$100 (GPS, on-demand Netflix box, webcams, etc).