Future Distributors

The Future Left Behind

Written by

Alan Oppenheimer

in

The addition of “The end of the Post Office” to our Future Bucket List leads to questions about other technologies that have ended or are ending. We’ve had lots of posts about Future technologies we’ve helped distribute, and about ones we hope to see, but how about technologies we’ve helped to obsolete?

We asked one of the new technologies, ChatGPT, about those old ones. Here’s what it came up with:

ChatGPT’s response to the query “List of top products/services obsoleted by technology” followed by “Create a graphic of a junk heap” of those technologies (lightly edited to fix usual ChatGPT errors)

How many can you identify? Here’s what ChatGPT claims is in the graphic (there’s a bunch more too):

  • Media & Entertainment: VHS tapes, VHS VCR, DVD cases, Compact Discs (CDs), Portable CD player (Discman), Cassette tapes, Cassette deck, Blockbuster Video store sign
  • Computing & Office: Typewriter, CRT computer monitor, Desktop computer tower, Overhead projector, Transparency sheets, Dot-matrix printer, Fax machine
  • Communication: Payphone booth, Corded landline telephone, Telephone answering machine
  • Photography & Imaging, Point-and-shoot digital camera, Film camera, Slide projector
  • Music & Audio: iPod-style MP3 player, Portable cassette player, Wired headphones
  • Navigation & Storage: Standalone GPS unit, Floppy disks, External disk drives

It’s a bit telling that ChatGPT chose to include only technologies obsoleted in the past few decades. A natural follow-on prompt was “Go back further.”

ChatGPT’s response to “Go back further”: “Ahh, zooming way out — deep-time obsolescence. I like it.”

Can you find?

  • Light & Power: Oil lanterns, Candle holders, Gas lamp housing, Bellows
  • Transportation: Horse-drawn carriage / buggy, Wagon wheels, Wooden carts, Sailboat / sailing ship
  • Warfare & Defense: Full suit of medieval armor, Cannon, Cannonballs, Swords / polearms, Shields
  • Manufacturing & Domestic Labor: Spinning wheel, Hand loom components, Washboard, Wooden crates & barrels
  • Communication & Information: Printing press components, Handwritten manuscripts, Bound ledgers, Loose parchment papers, Telegraph / Morse code apparatus
  • Navigation & Measurement: Sextant, Compass, Mechanical clock parts, Sundial-like instruments
  • Agriculture & Tools: Hand plow components, Scythes, Sickles, Hand tools (hammers, tongs)

So what’s next? Stay tuned?

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