# Current trends you called years ahead of time **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 7, 2007, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854 "2007-07-07T14:39:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/21 "2007-07-08T13:41:30Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield] Back around 1983, the Downsview Public Library in Toronto got in this incredible gadget. It was a computer terminal connected to what amounted to a wide area network called Teleguide. [/QUOTE] Are you sure it wasn’t Telidon? I got a demonstration of Telidon (a videotext service very much like you describe) in about 1983 or 4 at the TVOntario studios, and they (the developers, not necessarily TVO) were hoping to put it into places like libraries at that time. Perhaps they put one in Downsview Library. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/22 "2007-07-08T15:36:16Z")
[QUOTE=Spoons] Are you sure it wasn’t Telidon? I got a demonstration of Telidon (a videotext service very much like you describe) in about 1983 or 4 at the TVOntario studios, and they (the developers, not necessarily TVO) were hoping to put it into places like libraries at that time. Perhaps they put one in Downsview Library. [/QUOTE] No, definitely Teleguide. Being a young and exuberantly geeky youth at the time, it made enough of an impression that I remember it quite clearly even today. I think it originated in Quebec, wherein it was spelled with its proper accents: Téléguide. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/23 "2007-07-08T16:08:29Z")
[QUOTE=SlickRoenick] possibly NSFW so i broke the link http ://www.bmezine.com/news/people/A10101/addsub/ [/QUOTE] Make that totally fake. That’s an April Fool’s Day article. [Link to the admit of fakery and some of the emails from folks who were taken in.](http://www.bmezine.com/news/people/A10101/addsub/fools.html) Of course, plenty of “kids” are doing things like splitting their tongues and penises and putting surgical implants under their skin, so the trend is indeed true, and can be learned about by poking around at that site, but Ryan and Dave’s story is bunk. ---
**Author:** ![Shecky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@Shecky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shecky)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/24 "2007-07-08T16:50:19Z")
When my father and I saw the first cell phones in the area in the early 80s, he looked at me and said, “In 20 years, I bet they’ll be a 10th the size, have appointment minders, a camera and maybe even a TV in there.” He’s still the smartest man I know, bar none. My brother wanted to start up an ISP in 1990. The bank told him that it was a bad idea and he never pursued it. For myself, I said the future was going to be in web based applications instead of installing them on your machine, about 2 months before Bill Gates said it at some conference. My moment is gone. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/25 "2007-07-08T17:09:21Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] I predicted that someday, kids would be into body modifications, including amputations. [/QUOTE] I’m sorry, I am not aware of recreational amputation as a phenomenon. Do you know if someone has written about it somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/26 "2007-07-08T17:12:07Z")
[QUOTE=SlickRoenick] possibly NSFW so i broke the link http ://www.bmezine.com/news/people/A10101/addsub/ [/QUOTE] OK, missed this with my previous post, but two freaky twins do not a phenomenon make. Any evidence the practice is widespread? ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/27 "2007-07-08T17:14:10Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Make that totally fake. That’s an April Fool’s Day article. [Link to the admit of fakery and some of the emails from folks who were taken in.](http://www.bmezine.com/news/people/A10101/addsub/fools.html) Of course, plenty of “kids” are doing things like splitting their tongues and penises and putting surgical implants under their skin, so the trend is indeed true, and can be learned about by poking around at that site, but Ryan and Dave’s story is bunk. [/QUOTE] I really need to learn to read further through threads before I post… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/28 "2007-07-08T17:26:00Z")
When I was in college I came up with an idea fro an electronic odometer for a bicycle using a magnet attached to the spokes and a reed switch to count revolutions. I bought the parts at Radio Shack, had a schematic, and then put it aside. Several years later an almost identical product came to market. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/29 "2007-07-08T17:44:25Z")
[QUOTE=Shecky] For myself, I said the future was going to be in web based applications instead of installing them on your machine, about 2 months before Bill Gates said it at some conference. My moment is gone. [/QUOTE] If you were only two months ahead of Bill Gates, you were about two years behind everybody else 😉 ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/30 "2007-07-08T19:02:07Z")
That article may be fake, but [apotemnophilia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotemnophilia) is real. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/31 "2007-07-08T19:15:17Z")
In 1993 I was living in Ecuador. One of the big radio and block party hits that summer was this little rumba number called “ **Macarena** ,” by these two old farts from Spain. It was repetitive and kind of annoying, but _insanely_ catchy, and even had a little dance that went with it, kind of a cross between the Hokey Pokey and the Electric Slide. You couldn’t go anywhere that summer without hearing that damn song. I commented to one of my (American) roommates at the time, “You know, all it would take is for some Puerto Ricans to get a hold of this track, throw a hip-hop beat and a few English lyrics onto it, and America would _eat that shit up_.” He scoffed at me at the time - keep in mind that this was before the whole Ricky Martin/Jennifer Lopez - driven Latin pop explosion in America. It ended up being some Miami Cubans instead of Puerto Ricans, but otherwise I was dead on. I prophesied the hateful doom that was the summer of '96. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/32 "2007-07-08T19:43:44Z")
In 1976, I was having a discussion about homosexuality with some friends, and one of them said that they were fine with consenting same sex adults being together, as long as they couldn’t actually get married. At that moment it occurred to me that there was absolutely no reason why gay people shouldn’t be allowed to marry, and I predicted that gay marriage would be legal within my lifetime. Thirty years later gay marriage has been legalized in a number of countries and one U.S. state, and becomes more common all the time. In 1979 I predicted that the 1980’s would see a major trend toward the celebration of men’s beauty and grooming. I still have the Newsweek cover from the mid-80’s on this topic, featuring Pierce Brosnan. In 1989 I predicted that apartheid would end (although many people could probably saw the writing on the wall for that one). I didn’t predict the VCR (and later TV series on DVD), but I _wanted_ them since the early '70’s. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/33 "2007-07-09T12:27:59Z")
I don’t know if it counts as a trend, but digital photo frames, I totally called back in elementary when I saw my first digicam. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/34 "2007-07-09T12:35:31Z")
I remember reading the body mod article before they wrote the statement that it was an April Fool article. The posts after the article where most certainly from persons that believed the article, and some admitted to some nasty mutilation. It was one of the threads I’ve had to stop reading and never go back to. Last summer I said that with the government subsidies for corn ethanol production, the price of food would raise dramatically. They should have been looking for processes that utilized the whole non food plant of large mass plants like kudzu vines. Now the price of corn has a direct link to crude oil prices, because it’s an energy source. By the way the drought is cutting into corn production greatly. Expect even higher prices. [http://www.yahoolavista.com/kudzu/](http://www.yahoolavista.com/kudzu/) Cheese has gone up about 150%. One gallon of milk from $2.60 to $4.30. It might be worse because I haven’t check for a week. Butter has gone up about 150%. Meat will be going up higher. The stuff made with dairy has gone up accordingly already. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/35 "2007-07-09T19:05:27Z")
I thought of the all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax, I just never tried to patent it. A copier is a scanner and printer. A fax is basically a printer and scanner with a modem attached. So why not have one unit do all these functions? ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854/36 "2007-07-09T21:37:33Z")
I’m not so sure about a prediction but waaaay back when I was a high school student, I noticed that some people seemed to be intellectually very clever but socially not very clever - so I coined my own phrases of ‘educational intelligence’ and ‘social intelligence’…if only I had been a bit older and already studying psychology, this could have been my phd thesis! Although it’s components are not totally agreed upon, we now have theories on EQ (emotional intelligence; social ability, empathy, self-control etc) and IQ (intellectual intelligence). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/current-trends-you-called-years-ahead-of-time/410854.md?page=1)