Found a 1980s ad saying everyone would have a robot butler by 2000

I was digging through some old tech magazines at my uncle's place outside Denver last weekend. He saved a stack of Popular Mechanics from the late 80s. One ad from 1987 showed a family sitting in their living room with a humanoid robot bringing them drinks. The text said something like "The domestic robot will be as common as the microwave by the year 2000." My uncle laughed and pointed at his Alexa sitting on the shelf. We got to talking about how we still can't even get a robot to reliably fold laundry or pick up socks off the floor. The closest thing most people have is a Roomba that gets stuck under the couch. I'm curious what other hilariously wrong predictions people have found from that era?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_luna3d ago

Eighty seven hits different now doesn't it. I noticed this same pattern with those old flying car predictions. We got stuck on the small stuff instead. My mom still complains her smart speaker can't tell the difference between "set a timer for pizza" and "set a timer for 10 minutes." Meanwhile my vacuum bot spent last Tuesday fighting a cat toy for an hour. Its like we aimed for butlers and ended up with gadgets that barely understand basic commands. The gap between what they sold us and what actually showed up is honestly kind of funny when you think about it.

lisa8393d ago

My Roomba spent three years learning to fear a single power cord. We wanted flying cars and got smart speakers that hear "play despacito" every time we say anything. The hype to reality pipeline is basically just a fancy way to sell us expensive toys that barely work.