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desk set

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retro futurism

Computers Will Put Us All Out of Work! 1957

Whether automation helps or hurts workers is on an ongoing question. Here, at the beginning of the information age, a blinking, whirring, wall-sized EMERAC computer (a play on the real-life ENIAC) puts a group of reference librarians to shame in a scene from Desk Set (1957). Yep, there are pink slips in those pay envelopes. Of course, "Emmy" herself was replaced by a newer, smaller, faster model long ago.

1:20 PM on Thu May 8 2008
By Lynn Peril
989 views, 8 comments