August 1984 PopSci
PopSci (probably my favorite magazine, with The Economist and Car & Driver rounding out the top three) recently made all of its archived magazines available online, for free.
This is fantastic.
First it means that I can free up shoebox space (sorta kidding), and second it means that you can look up all of the amazing articles dating back into the 1800's.
I looked up the month I was born, and I found some interesting things:
American luxury sedans of 1984 were friggin terrible. Anyone who lived through the 80's know this, but one of the cars tested, an Olds 98 Regency, did 0-60 in... wait for it... still waiting.. 18.4 seconds. Most of the rest did it in about 12 seconds. In comparison, 10 years later, a 1994 Kia Sephia (and man were those crappy cars, way before Kia became a real company) did it in 10.2 seconds. Yeah....
Further interesting points:
Advertising was dominated by cars and cigarettes. By dominated I mean 90% of color ads.
They had just found the bone of the oldest then dated hominid, about 5million years old
A Radio Shack "lap computer" cost about $700, prices have stayed the same, but oh how the times have changed
Apple was coming after market leader IBM with a "stylish new compact computer"... see below..
A new flat panel was developed with the ability to "remember" an image on the screen after it is turned off (can anyone say e-ink and Kindle?)
The magazine featured new ultra-compact car prototypes as wells as gas saving tips for regular drivers.
And a special focus was made on both wind and solar technology, and how quickly and easily it could commercialized.
My point here is this: there are certain things that develop quickly, namely those products which are based around the improvement of technology. Today's large sedans are far better than those of 1984, today's laptops come from a different planet. However, there are also a lot of things which dont change, and primary among those is American buying habits. We look at ultra-compacts as interesting (50mpg would be great) but we never actually want to buy one. Also, technology which is "cool" such as solar and wind always make for a great read, but they have not and likely will never be serious solutions to mankind's energy consumption. However, if there is faith in progress beyond the development of technology, it is that to me the site of a cigarette ad, indeed the very prevalence of those ads, to me is an anachronism not only because they are now banned, but because there is no way that the industry is large enough today to support a level of advertising akin to car manufacturers.
Anyway, for a cool blast from the past and dose of perspective, I suggest giving the archives a look through.
http://www.popsci.com/archives
This is fantastic.
First it means that I can free up shoebox space (sorta kidding), and second it means that you can look up all of the amazing articles dating back into the 1800's.
I looked up the month I was born, and I found some interesting things:
American luxury sedans of 1984 were friggin terrible. Anyone who lived through the 80's know this, but one of the cars tested, an Olds 98 Regency, did 0-60 in... wait for it... still waiting.. 18.4 seconds. Most of the rest did it in about 12 seconds. In comparison, 10 years later, a 1994 Kia Sephia (and man were those crappy cars, way before Kia became a real company) did it in 10.2 seconds. Yeah....
Further interesting points:
Advertising was dominated by cars and cigarettes. By dominated I mean 90% of color ads.
They had just found the bone of the oldest then dated hominid, about 5million years old
A Radio Shack "lap computer" cost about $700, prices have stayed the same, but oh how the times have changed
Apple was coming after market leader IBM with a "stylish new compact computer"... see below..
A new flat panel was developed with the ability to "remember" an image on the screen after it is turned off (can anyone say e-ink and Kindle?)The magazine featured new ultra-compact car prototypes as wells as gas saving tips for regular drivers.
And a special focus was made on both wind and solar technology, and how quickly and easily it could commercialized.
My point here is this: there are certain things that develop quickly, namely those products which are based around the improvement of technology. Today's large sedans are far better than those of 1984, today's laptops come from a different planet. However, there are also a lot of things which dont change, and primary among those is American buying habits. We look at ultra-compacts as interesting (50mpg would be great) but we never actually want to buy one. Also, technology which is "cool" such as solar and wind always make for a great read, but they have not and likely will never be serious solutions to mankind's energy consumption. However, if there is faith in progress beyond the development of technology, it is that to me the site of a cigarette ad, indeed the very prevalence of those ads, to me is an anachronism not only because they are now banned, but because there is no way that the industry is large enough today to support a level of advertising akin to car manufacturers.
Anyway, for a cool blast from the past and dose of perspective, I suggest giving the archives a look through.
http://www.popsci.com/archives
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