1992 Science Fiction

I imagine what I did yesterday afternoon would have been unheard of a couple of decades ago.

First of all, I was sitting in a downtown coffee shop drinking a 12 ounce cup of coffee.

I paid $2.00 for a “Tall Blond”.  In 1992, it would have cost 49 cents, at least at McDonalds.

I was using my laptop to connect to the internet via Starbucks wifi.  In 1992 not only were laptop computers unavailable, so were internet browsers unless you had this.

My wife called me on my smartphone and asked me to bring home spring valley echinacea goldenseal from Walmart.

I opened up Microsoft word, typed in spring valley echinacea goldenseal, then saved the file in Dropbox.

I drove to Walmart, open up the file I saved in Dropbox on my laptop except now it’s also on my phone and head to the cold and allergy section of the store.  I see nothing with any of those names.

I open the web browser on my phone and start typing in echonesiea golden seal and Google fixes my spelling error and the first search result will take me to the mobile version of the Walmart website with a picture of what I am supposed to buy.

I recognize spring valley echinacea goldenseal as a vitamin/supplement, walk over to the correct aisle, grab a bottle, go to the self-serve check out where I scan the bottle which the barcode reader correctly identifies, swipe my credit card, take my receipt and start heading home. Not once did I talk interact with anyone, even as I had questions.

But I had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t right.  As I sat at a traffic light I looked for the words golden seal on the bottle and didn’t see it anywhere.

I woke up my phone and it immediately showed me what I was supposed to buy was different from what I bought.

I returned the first bottle to Walmart, picked up the correct bottle and after paying for it with a scan and a swipe, headed home.

In 1992, this little adventure would have been a science fiction story.

20 years ago I was working for a radio station in Detroit. Only the General Manager had a carphone.  To demonstrate what a car phone was in 92, check out this crusty old tv commercial…