The opening scene in E.M Forster's 'The Machine Stop' has all the hall marks of skype.
Was he the first to use this in a story ? ...
Not sure if that counts.
I meant more as part of the plot in the story. ...
It strikes me the other way round – for a hundred years, videocalling was seen as a science-fiction pipe dream on a par with flying cars. When it actually came into the world, it felt very normal. ...
It's a non-negligible value though. Speaking from experience, and I know I'm not the only one, I much prefer to talk to my family via skype than on the phone because it's one of the few times I actually get to 'see' them.Except for certain situations in which the image of the other party / parties is a critical component of the conversational context, video remains little more than a "cool" adjunct to distance communication. The warm and fuzzy feel-good factor of seeing your conversational partner is the only guaranteed value added.
It's a non-negligible value though. Speaking from experience, and I know I'm not the only one, I much prefer to talk to my family via skype than on the phone because it's one of the few times I actually get to 'see' them.
I'd also argue that the image adds another dimension to communication, just as a voice-only telephone has more communicative potential than say a telegraph or text messaging (arguably). For another example, I've been teaching some private students via Skype since this whole virus scare started – a voice telephone would be much less effective in this case.Oh, I understand ... That's the feel-good factor I mentioned - a gloss on the communication capabilities that imparts some peripheral measure of personal presence or connection. Once the cost structure for personal video telephony shrank to a feasible level (facilitated as much by networking / bandwidth capabilities as anything else ... ) it could finally be leveraged in the marketplace. Gloss sells ...
I'd also argue that the image adds another dimension to communication, just as a voice-only telephone has more communicative potential than say a telegraph or text messaging (arguably). For another example, I've been teaching some private students via Skype since this whole virus scare started – a voice telephone would be much less effective in this case.
It strikes me the other way round – for a hundred years, videocalling was seen as a science-fiction pipe dream on a par with flying cars.
And we're still waitin for flying cars, jet-packs & holidays on the Moon.
I loved watching Tomorrow's World. One of the best BBC series ever.
They had to kill it, though. Too much stuff they talked about never got heard from again (even though it worked).
As someone who - like I suspect many on here - has endured what seems like several months of Zoom etc conferences in the past few weeks, it does add the element of knowing when people want to say something. Blind (ie audio-only) conference calls are 75% people talking over one another, saying "no, you go first", and silence.Above and beyond the obvious technical and economic issues that had to be overcome, there was an even bigger problem - i.e., that video adds little or nothing to one-on-one or group-to-group 2-way communications. In other words, resistance to video telephony / video conferencing had as much or more to do with usability / usefulness as with feasibility or affordability.
The downside is, of course, the need to at least put some trousers on.
How did you know, though?But no-one knows you’re sitting on a kipper.
I got the idea from the energy crisis of the 70‘s when people were cooking fish in tinfoil on top of their car engines on the way home from work. I thought everyone was heating kippers under their bums in these lockdown days.How did you know, though?
Unless you are as well, of course. It does help, doesn't it?
Speak for yourself!
Full disclosure required. Are you one of our lizard overlords?