You open your eyes, grab your phone, and scroll through the notifications? We're all the same. Now, imagine the same scene… in 1967, with a printer clicking by the bed! That's exactly what the BBC broadcast almost 60 years ago on the program Tomorrow's World (The World of Tomorrow): A Londoner, Rex Malik, receives stock market quotes and his daily schedule without leaving his bed. No Wi-Fi, no touchscreen; just a large terminal called "Scan" connected by cable to a gigantic computer hidden in the City.
At the time, the promise seemed crazy: "In twenty years, every house will have a special outlet for plugging in a computer." Six decades later, we carry a mini-PC in our pocket. Proof that the visionaries at the BBC weren't so far off the mark... and that our ultra-connected routines are based on ideas launched long before the invention of Wi-Fi.
Flashback to 1967: Rex Malik and his "Scan" terminal
Rex Malik lives in Highgate, north London. As soon as he gets out of bed, he presses a button: the "Scan" terminal He wakes up, prints out stock market quotes, his calendar, even his bank account balance. All this in plain English, without a single bit of binary code to type. For the sixties, it's absolutely stunning.
The report emphasizes: two identical terminals sit in the apartment, connected to this "giant invisible brain" nestled in the City. We're talking about a huge shared computer - of time-sharing ahead of schedule — which only a privileged few can connect to. Engineers interviewed by the BBC are already envisioning the arrival of standard "computer" sockets in every home: a somewhat optimistic prediction for 1987, but not so far removed from our current fiber optics.
A very real prototype, but an outrageously expensive personal computer
Contrary to what one might think, the sequence is not a film set. Rex Malik is actually tapping on a modified teletype machine, connected via modem to a central office. Between two whirring sounds reminiscent of a double-decker bus, the printed data is indeed arriving from the London "supercomputer" located several kilometers away.
However, make no mistake: we are facing a demonstration prototype. The BBC It aims to capture the imagination, to show that a "connected" life is technically possible. But in 1967, no catalog offered the "Scan" terminal for public rental, and you wouldn't have found this service at Harrods or Darty.
Why is this archive still worth visiting?
Today, our watches count our steps, our refrigerators order the milk, and AI completes our emails. Seeing a noisy terminal taking up half a room reminds us that before every tech revolution, there's an overpriced prototype that everyone scoffs at. Augmented reality glasses or self-driving cars might make your grandchildren smile, just as Malik's ticker amuses us today.
In any case, one thing is certain: engineers in the 60s were already dreaming of democratizing access to computers and information.
Is the Scan terminal a preview of our smartphones?
Tomorrow's World He didn't guess everything, but his insights on the home computer remain a gem of retro optimism. Rex's terminal has aged, but not the idea: to put the power of information at your fingertips without leaving home.
So, the next time you're complaining because your WiFi is slow, think of Rex Malik, his thunderous ticker, and the £30 per week that he was paying for fewer features than a budget smartphone. Smile: you are holding in your hands what visionaries, almost sixty years ago, only dared to imagine.
