I saw it on Beyond 2000

Technology and Internet
#1

G’day,

I know they said it would happen “Beyond 2000”, but didn’t think it would be this far beyond 2000 for us to see some of the tech that was hilighted on that old Aussie tv gem!

Amanda Keller… :heart_eyes:… Sorry!

I used to watch Beyond 2000 (maybe not the original ABC version) quite religiously, and was always on the look out for when something showcased on the series made its way into real life.

One such example that I literally saw go from screen to my hand was a computer mouse that could be used as a scanner! Wow, fancy that! How useful! (Err… well… maybe just a fad.)

There was something that I remember though, that never seemed to go anywhere - a camera in your car that could detect if you were sleepy, and alert you to that fact so you could avoid falling asleep / microsleeping and crashing. Now - this must have aired in the 90’s… And FINALLY -

Anyone else got a B2k story?

cheers

cosmic

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#2

I was just a young boy when this show was on, but I still remember them talking often about “the greenhouse effect”. Imagine if we took climate change action back then; we certainly knew it was happening.

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#3

My car has lane assist tech, so it has scanners that make sure you’re inside your lane and if you start to drift it can automatically put you back to the right position. After 2 or 3 times of having to do that it then alerts you to pay attention / put your hands on the wheel. Not quite a camera but same concept.

#4

As a someone born in the 50’s I used to watch B2K with amazement as to what the future may hold.

I sat near Simon Reeves, at a function, a couple of weeks ago. He’s looking like B2K was a long time ago

#5

2K was a long time ago :slight_smile:

#6

Just found an alleged “official” YouTube channel! :slight_smile:

Lots of full episodes…

And yes, B2k was a lifetime ago - just ask my 11yo son… Simon Reeves was on the show in 1991-2 apparently, so - yep, that was plenty of lifetimes ago!

One thing not from B2K (though it may have featured on there at some point I guess) - I remember watching in amazement on Hey Hey Its Saturday when the guy from the old Curiosity Show (god knows why Daryl tried to educate his audience…) introduced a metal that could remember what shape it was meant to be - so if it was bent out of shape, you just heated it, and it would return to its previous shape!! OMG! He said it would revolutionise the motor vehicle industry - No need for replacing / repairing parts when you have an accident - just get the hair dryer out…

Well - whilst that tech never made it into every day life, apparently the wheels of one of the (future?) Mars Rovers is (will be) made using that memory metal so that if the wheels of the rover are damaged - they pop back up when the sun comes out! Freakin amazing!

#7

Not Beyond 2000 but even earlier there was a UK show “Living Tomorrow”

It would have been around 1978 but they had an episode on Laser Eye Surgery. And how in future lasers could fix poor eyesight

I remember at the time thinking how cool it would be if that became reality

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#8

Interestingly, the Curiosity Show was being discussed on ABC Radio Perth this morning, and it turns out the entirety of it ended up being owned by the guys on screen, and they’ve put the whole lot up on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ9oDWliqkUxGHsKVbkwQOw

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#9

My abiding memory of B2K was the gorgeous young black American reporter that came onboard at one stage demonstrating a miracle new chemical with all sorts of amazing properties. Part of her demonstration included dunking a working computer in the liquid, with no negative effects whatsoever. The miracle compound - CFC.

#10

Re the Curiosity Show I remember in a particular episode they showed a computer program that you could enter in a word and it would spit out all the differen combinations of letters in the word. I wrote in to them to ask for a listing and got a reply from Rob himself.

Re Beyond 2000 yes all the nerds would talk about what they’d seen the night before at school. Loved that show. I should totally make the theme a ringtone.

#11

Yes - I saw that the Curiosity Show guys picked the rights up to “their” show cheap when the production company went into liquidation! :slight_smile: Apparently some of the clips they’ve put up have “gone viral” - 100’s of thousands of views or more.

I recall the woman you are talking about - but not the story. I used to get so much flak as a kid for using a Ventolin puffer with CFCs…