h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

OK, in a recent discussion in real life I have been thinking about things that are no longer with us that the next generation will have no concept or knowledge of, examples so far -

Leaded petrol
green shield stamps
The UK dog licence
Animal testing on cosmetics (In the UK anyway)
Pound notes and 1/2 penny coins (again UK reference)

And is there anything you'd like to see added to this list that hasn't yet dissappeared?

CHawke

Being born before we went decimal I can't pass on

Pounds Shillings and Pence plus I also hope I will pass unto them the Euro as well instead of pounds and pence when they do finally come along.

BTW you can still get poound notes in Scotland so it's not a UK reference aboce.

Student Grants. That's something I was sad to see go cos now I'll have a hefty loan to pay back when I'm earning over £10 000.

Also living under Maggie Thatcher. Future generations will never know how awful it was. (Although Tony Blair's coming quite close!)

Don't blame me I protested against the introduction of loans in the first palce I saw where this was heading. They used to call them top up loans as well. To try and disguise the fact they were going to make us pay for our education in a few years time. At least in America people start putting money away when their children are born to cover this which is what I will start doing once we start having kids as I doubt it is going to get better.

4-channel TV
Ford Capris
Only Fools And Horses
Pong
Good-Looking non-commercial Football
CGA/EGA graphics

...Maybe not the best examples.

B

Four!!!

OMG I remember whgen there were just three. I sat there and watched the entire first evening of Channel 4 when I came in from school that day from Countdown on.

Mind you I must be sad I did exactly the same thing when Virgin radio and Channel 5 started as well.

::AHEM::

Some of us here are old enough to remember when there was just BBC and ITV, and how wild the idea of a third channel was. I clearly recall the trade test transmissions for BBC 2. There was that one about plastics, there was one about oil exploration, there was another about the Zambezi Dam, and there was a very odd one about a young Italian girl.

They'd never believe you Gosho.

They never do

"4-channel TV"

Err still got it down here in Devon and always will until Digital is fully implemented, Only Plymouth has Channel 5!

As to things we hope we don't pass on to our children -

Leg Warmers -
Gonks

Irratating, there was several others we talked about today but forgotten I'm sure when the wine wears off I will rememeber

CH

Kids will never understand why we say the phone is ringing, or that we will ring someone. Phones don't ring anymore.

You can't dial on them either.

The next generation won't be listening to records, probably not to tapes either.

And the days of putting film in the camera are probably numbered.

If Sky+ digital gets it's way- the idea of recording TV shows with tapes. Model work in films and TVs rather than pretty but unreal looking CGI effects.

Francs, deutche marks and lira.

back to the TV theme, the Test Cards and the fact that TV chanels actually used to not broadcast all the time.

CH

The days when not all homes had computers. If a house had a computer, it didn't necessarily have Internet access. (Not to mention the days when computers had 32Kbytes of memory or less, no floppy drive let alone a hard drive, and programs were loaded from tapes. And people were surprised when those computers were used for nothing except playing games, no matter what they were bought for!)

zx-spectrums and ql's...and basically any computer that ain't a PC or Mac...

Especially the zx's rubber keys....

Oh..and how exiting pong was..

I grew up believing a computer was a room full of filing cabinets with reel-to-reel tapes on the front, and loads fo flashing lights. You could ask it anything you liked in plain speech, and it would spit out the answer on a card. And when I went to university it wasn't that far from the truth (apart from the ask it anything you like bit!)

The first Space Invaders machines. WOuld children ever believe that we thought they were *the* coolest thing ever.

My daughter saw a typewriter at a friends house.
'What's that. Some kind of old-fashioned printer or something.'
I tried to explain that there was a way of printing documents that didn't involve a PC, but she couldn't seem to get her head round the concept.

Well, there's not a lot I can think of. My kids are familiar with the concept of black and white TV thanks to videos. They've seen The Wooden Tops and Bill and Ben and enjoyed them just as we did.

They know what a typewriter is and punch cards, although I doubt if they've ever made a punch card, which we did in the 6th form.

In fact they may even know more about life in former times than I do, as they have a very keen teacher who has made a collection of old-fashioned school equipment (they stand at the desks, for example) and holds a demonstration class every now and again using Victorian methods. It's quite an eye-opener for the kids!

As for music, my kids have their own band and, as well as contemporary songs, they also perform the type of stuff we used to listen to. (At least the stuff that's any good they do) And I don't mind if they don't know all the rest of the songs that were around when I was a teenager - most of them were rubbish anyway.

Last night for example, their programme included "Born to be wild" and "Teen Spirit", still great favourites, and "The Letter" which is such an amazing song you can do anything with it. For example, play it reggae style, then Heavy Metal ... that's is what they do, anyway.

So basically I'm saying they know about life 20 years ago and treat it with the lack of respect that it deserves. And we took it so seriously!!!

For me the most amazing thing that was never anticipated in any science fiction even up to the 50s and 60s is the concept of fax. it should have been the answer to the problems of misunderstanding.

For my mother, the breatkthrough invention was the plastic bag. She still marvels at what you can do with them.

My grandmother used to tell me that when she was little, she always got tongue-tied over the word "machine" - it would always come out "shermeen".

That's the generations for you.