
I Invented the iPhone in 1977 - feross
https://meaningness.com/metablog/pocket-computer
======
WalterBright
Clarke "invented" it in his 1975 book "Imperial Earth", calling it the
"minisec":

"The 'Sec was the standard size of all such units, determined by what can fit
comfortably in the human hand. At a quick glance, it did not differ greatly
from one of the small electronic calculators that had started coming into
general use at the end of the twentieth century. It was, however, infinitely
more versatile, and Duncan could not imagine what life would be like without
it. Because of the finite size of clumsy human fingers, it had no more
controls than that of its ancestor of three hundred years earlier. There were
fifty neat little studs; each, however, had an unlimited number of functions,
according to the mode of operation - for the character visible on each stud
changed according to the mode. ... The device also had a dictionary function
and could hold large amounts of data. It could also communicte with desktop
console computers."

[http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1267](http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1267)

------
ajuc

        I spent the afternoon in a bookstore. There were no books in it. None had been printed for nearly half a century. And how I have looked forward to them, after the micro films that made up the library of the Prometheus! No such luck. No longer was it possible to browse among shelves, to weigh volumes in hand, to feel their heft, the promise of ponderous reading. The bookstore resembled, instead, an electronic laboratory. The books were crystals with recorded contents. They could be read with the aid of an opton, which was similar to a book but had only one page between the covers. At a touch, successive pages of the text appeared on it.
    

[...]

    
    
        But optons were little used, the sales-robot told me. The public preferred lectons – like lectons read out loud, they could be set to any voice, tempo and modulation.
    
    

Stanisław Lem, "A Return from the Stars", 1961

More: [https://culture.pl/en/article/13-things-lem-predicted-
about-...](https://culture.pl/en/article/13-things-lem-predicted-about-the-
future-we-live-in)

:)

~~~
082349872349872
I don't worry so much that we're living in _The Futurological Congress_ once I
observe that people don't seem to be in particularly good shape.

------
dlivingston
To quote the iconic line from _The Social Network_ : "If you guys were the
inventors of Facebook, then you would have invented Facebook." [0]

[0]: [https://youtu.be/QqP38kZC1QA](https://youtu.be/QqP38kZC1QA)

------
WalterBright
In the 1960s, I read a book written for kids. I don't recall the title of it.
In it, the boy receives a toy with a keyboard and a screen. He types in
questions, and gets answers. One question he asked the toy was "what is the
main export of Bolivia?" The toy writes to the screen "tin".

I type it into Google 45 years later, and it replies "natural gas, silver,
zinc, lead, tin, gold, quinoa, soybeans and soy products".

I wish I remembered the title of that book!

~~~
bangonkeyboard
_Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine_ , (1958)?

    
    
      He snapped the POWER ON switch and, while he was waiting for the machine to warm up, quickly jotted down exactly what he wanted and found the code number for its place in the memory banks. Turning to the microphone, he said, “Address 21690. A report on the products and industry of Peru. Prepare and type information, pages 93, 94, and 95.”
      ...
      Irene pretended to clear her throat. She could remember feeding the information about Peru into the computer. Frowning with the effort to recall the details, she brought to mind the exact pages of the textbook: pages 93, 94, and 95. She pretended to read from the report but really began to recite from memory: “The products of Peru. Within the boundaries of Peru many minerals are to be found, among them silver and copper…“

~~~
WalterBright
That is amazing but I remember it being Bolivia! I did a google search-inside-
the-book but "Bolivia" is not found. Neither is "tin".

But it does sound awfully close. Maybe the book I read is a knock-off of Danny
Dunn.

~~~
bangonkeyboard
Maybe. 60 years is a long opportunity for memories to shift their details
while retaining the main thrust. Try skimming the book, perhaps other scenes
and characters will feel familiar; skimming my own copy certainly did for me.

~~~
WalterBright
You may very well be right.

------
joezydeco
Alan Kay might disagree:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook)

------
sneak
I suppose this goes without saying, usually:

A sketch is not an invention.

Correspondingly, Star Trek didn’t invent the iPad.

You have to actually build a functioning prototype to claim to have invented
something.

~~~
fortran77
> You have to actually build a functioning prototype to claim to have invented
> something.

No. But that's besides the point. (See [https://www.neustel.com/invention-
process/prototypes/#:~:tex...](https://www.neustel.com/invention-
process/prototypes/#:~:text=Many%20inventors%20wonder%20if%20they,they%20can%20also%20be%20costly).
for example)

This guy wrote an interesting article when he was 15 that got a lot of
predictions right. Enjoy it for what it is! He's not claiming he owns the
rights to the iPhone.

Lighten up people.

~~~
klipt
I assume "invented" is tongue in cheek. A more accurate word might be
"predicted".

------
dorkwood
I feel like the 'idea' of the iPhone was in the global zeitgeist for a long
while before it was actually made.

As I child, I can remember watching a program called "Beyond 2000". In one
particular segment, it showed a newspaper being replaced with a digital screen
that you could hold in your hand. That idea -- a screen that you could carry
around with you -- seemed to be something we were always working towards.

~~~
gervwyk
I also use to watch that! was my favorite part of the week when I was like
10... wonder where one could find the episodes, would be cool to watch them
now and reflect on how things turned out.

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jnwatson
My father always had several small computers laying around when I was a young
child. I really enjoyed the Tandy pocket computer. Even as a 4 or 5 year old,
I could get it to do the "What is your name", "hello <>" program. It was a
source of hours of enjoyment.

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pjettter
So what. I invented half of the patents being submitted by Apple, all in one
short story I wrote in 1994.

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davidg109
I just hand drew a rocket to Uranus. I hereby decree I am now the inventor.

~~~
ponker
My son beat you by several years.

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jacobush
I sketched the XBOX in 1998. I even named it the “X-BOX” on the paper.

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acqq
> No, really. I did.

> So I lied. I didn’t invent the iPhone; I invented the iPAQ (cca. 2000)

To save you the time.

