https://meaningness.com/metablog/pocket-computer Anyone else read meaningness? Anyway the author found an old essay from 1977 where they described the "pocket computer" - pretty interesting.

Here are a couple of dudes eating breakfast and reading/watching the news on their pocket computers/dynapads/iPads in 2001: A Space Odyssey, made in 1968. (The film's technology consultants worked with Bell Labs to get the details of a screen-based future right.) BTW, most Meaningness readers are interested in his long-running "Meta-Rationality" project, but FoC members might be amused to learn that in a former life he co-authored the paredit-like structural editing features in Zmacs (the Lisp Machine's editor).

Interesting that the couple of dudes are watching the same thing. I wonder if people hadn't yet considered the possibility of on-demand abundance.

Stuff goes way back. Here's effectively a cell phone from 1931