# Dated references/technology/etc in media. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 16, 2018, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725 "2018-01-16T01:18:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/21 "2018-01-16T20:10:24Z")
In _Bullitt_ (1968), there’s [a nearly 2-minute scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQGAaCSFlJI) based around the police waiting for a copy of the suspect’s passport application to arrive over a telecopier machine. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/22 "2018-01-16T20:29:11Z")
Do songs count? Kid Rock’s Bawitaba comes to mind. “All the G’s with 40s and the chicks with beepers” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/23 "2018-01-16T20:37:15Z")
I’m going through Jack Vance’s _Demon Princes_ novels and am amused that all transactions are in cash. The final book, _The Book of Dreams_, came out in 1981, when credit cards were already common. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/24 "2018-01-16T21:15:26Z")
**Law & Order** , et al, since it’s been on so long, has LOADS of these. Just over the weekend the prison warden handed Eliot a floppy disk (!) with a list of inmates that had a connection to the suspect. That, plus the phone technology can show you what season it is. Early episodes have Logan calling into the precinct on a pay phone. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/25 "2018-01-16T21:21:28Z")
I remember one L&O episode where Briscoe’s brand new partner Rey Curtis pulls out a cell phone and Briscoe looks at him like he had two heads. Even at the time in 1995 lots of people had cell phones, and it was only fossils like Briscoe who thought they were weird. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/26 "2018-01-16T21:33:54Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Star Trek: The next generation. > > Data says his processor is capable of 60 trillion operations per second (in the 24th century). > > That is about 1000 times slower than a modern supercomputer. Back in the late 80s though, I’m sure it sounded pretty fast. I thought it was some made up thing, gigaquads or something. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/27 "2018-01-16T21:34:20Z")
A related set of circumstances helped make _It Follows_ so disturbing. The film is full of teens lounging around tethered to their corded phones, watching tube TVs, and driving 1970s-era box sedans. Except it’s not a period piece. Every once in a while, somebody whips out a smart phone, and the fashions are more or less up to date (as far as I could tell - not my area of expertise). It is certainly not impossible for 2014 kids to be hanging out talking on corded phones, but it’s improbable, adding to the movie’s otherworldly worldview. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/28 "2018-01-16T23:03:07Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Which, amusingly, were roughly the size of 1990s-vintage 3.5" floppy disks. You don’t think the floppy manufacturers…no, unthinkable! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/29 "2018-01-16T23:27:57Z")
When E.T. coded, they used drugs that are no longer on the market. Bretylium is one that comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/30 "2018-01-16T23:51:58Z")
[24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLH_QyPTYM) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/31 "2018-01-16T23:53:04Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > Do songs count? One of Fountain of Wayne’s best songs (“Little Red Light”) has a slightly dated feel: _"I go to work I come back home But you’re still gone And I’m still alone And the little red light’s not blinking No, no the little red light’s not blinking No, no the little red light’s not blinking On my big black plastic Japanese cordless phone_ ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/32 "2018-01-17T00:17:36Z")
In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s novel “Inferno” (a 1970s riff on Dante’s Inferno), someone is in Hell for getting the artificial sweetener sodium cyclamate banned, thus dooming soda lovers into being a bunch of fatties. Of course, aspartame-based sodas showed up just a few years later, so it seems a little harsh now. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/33 "2018-04-29T01:56:43Z")
On Gotham they certainly seem to have a lot of CRT televisions still in use. It’s a bit of a wonder the production can still find that many that still work as well as they seem to for a show being made in the 2010’s. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/34 "2018-04-29T02:33:54Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > Do songs count? Kid Rock’s Bawitaba comes to mind. > “All the G’s with 40s and the chicks with beepers” Old 97s “Big Brown Eyes” has the line: “I’m calling Time and Temperature just for some company”. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/35 "2018-04-29T03:09:57Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > All the folks who get a critical phone call…on their flip phones. Tony Stark has a flip phone in **Avengers:Infinity War**. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/36 "2018-04-29T03:13:53Z")
The Kinsey Milhone novels (A is for Alibi, et. seq.) specifically never moved out of the 80s so she could avoid dealing with cell phones and the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/37 "2018-04-29T03:46:14Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > William Gibson’s works in general, I think, are going to go through a period where they are uncomfortably goofy - maybe they will emerge on the other side as cherished vintage SF - in the same way that ‘golden age’ SF is cherished even though it contains unlikely things such as robots made from gears and relays and 1920s-Style Ray Guns A couple of years ago I read Gibson’s Bridge trilogy, which were published 1993-1999 and set in the then not-too-distant future. I don’t think the year is ever specified, but a character born in the mid-1980s is a youngish adult so it seems to be the now not-too-distant past of the late 2000s/early 2010s. Anyway, the descriptions of future tech were sometimes surprisingly accurate, at other times predicted things that haven’t come to pass (at least not yet), and sometimes _underestimated_ technological advances. There’s a scene in _Virtual Light_ where a pair of guards working for a home security company are responding to an alarm. They aren’t sure how to get to the house so they turn on the GPS in their car. I was at first impressed by Gibson’s prediction, but soon became confused by the behavior of the characters. It took me a while to figure out that this sci-fi automobile GPS system was just showing them their current location on a map, and was _not_ providing them with directions. In fairness, that’s still a pretty good prediction. A not-so-good prediction comes soon afterward, when the guards receive an image from the house’s security cameras. It _prints out_ on their car’s _fax machine_. :eek: > [@ivylass](#): > > **Law & Order** , et al, since it’s been on so long, has LOADS of these. Just over the weekend the prison warden handed Eliot a floppy disk (!) with a list of inmates that had a connection to the suspect. That, plus the phone technology can show you what season it is. Early episodes have Logan calling into the precinct on a pay phone. I’ve noticed that in reruns of some earlier episodes of _L&O_ they’ll have blood from the crime scene and will talk about checking the blood type, with no mention of DNA. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/38 "2018-04-29T04:21:38Z")
No one has talked about airliners yet. Lots of changes such as from piston driven engines to jets. And the whole process before boarding has changed–since 9/11 airports are more security conscious: the metal detectors and more recently body scanners. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/39 "2018-04-29T06:18:13Z")
There was a King of the Hill episode in late 2008 entirely about the new fad MySpace, just a few months later Facebook would officially overtake MySpace in popularity. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725/40 "2018-04-29T13:30:59Z")
Swiping access cards to unlock a door. Pretty much nobody uses cards of this type anymore, but nearly every single movie and TV show has the characters swiping their cards to gain access to secure areas. Heck, they’re used in movies that are depicting security in the future, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dated-references-technology-etc-in-media/806725.md?page=3)