io9: office of the future

Meet the Pre-Jetsons of 1956

Lynn Peril — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:20:00 PDT

It’s Monday, October 5, 2000. Mars has the Q-Bomb and some politician is blathering on about tax cuts. Instead of smell-o-vision, the newspaper carries smell-o-ads (and sex-o-ads, too). There’s a four-hour work day (with a two-hour lunch), a push button desk, and lots of other delights (not to mention some very retro gender stereotyping) in this clip from “Your Safety First” (1956), a promotional film from the Automobile Manufacturers of America. If you’re a fan of The Jetsons, it’ll seem strangely familiar—especially that voice!—but “Your Safety First” pre-dated the cartoon series by six years.

Computers Will Put Us All Out of Work! 1957

Lynn Peril — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:20:00 PDT

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.

Do Bosses Dream of Electronic Secretaries?

Lynn Peril — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:35:25 PDT

Why bother with a wage-earning, vacation-taking, lunch-going human female when a machine could do her job without asking for a single benefit or sick day? This 1962 ad for a table-top-sized answering machine (which appeared in Business Week, then aimed at an almost entirely male readership) showed management the way of the future. According to the copy, the Electronic Secretary was even "lovable." Bet she didn't file sexual harassment suits, either. Click through for a closer look at the secretary of the future.