tv The Eighties CNN September 4, 2022 9:00pm-10:00pm PDT
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as soon as we have intelligent machines creeping into our daily lives, it's going to be a new world out there. >> the popularity of these video games is nothing short of a social phenomenon. >> personal computers, walk-around stereos, automatic cameras, mobile telephones. >> a major moment in the history of flight. >> the experts tell us all of this is just the tip of the iceberg of what's to come. >> there's literally a hyperculture that is developing, it's almost a cult. >> we're no longer on the verge of the personal computer revolution. we're right in the midst of it, thank you. ♪
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a car. you listen to music on a big old stereo system with a turntable. maybe you had a digital watch, and that was the only thing that was going to be digital that you actually owned. >> hello? i'm not here now, but my faithful machine is. >> there was a handful of technology at that time. one was the telephone answering machine. you'd be driving home and you'd say, i can't wait to check my messages. you know, it had become part of the day. honey, i'm checking my messages. >> from the noisy streets of new york to the laid-back tranquility of california, americans are tuning out and tuning in. >> when i think of technology in the 1980s, i think of the walkman. the walkman was huge. >> it's the latest fad. tiny stereo cassette players with featherweight headphones. >> it's like carrying your stereo with you, you know, on your head. >> the walkman took listening to
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music from a fixed location in your home to mobile. >> you are witnessing the ultimate miniaturization of the cassette player. nenever has so much genius been coaxed into so little space. >> in all the great bursts of innovation, there is always some kind of scientific breakthrough that has to happen first. and none of this stuff could have happened in the 1980s without the transistor being invented in the late 1940s. and japan and sony in particular really understood this technology could make things smaller, more affordable, more versatile. sony was the brand name that really mattered in the 1980s in technology. >> i'll take the sony! >> the original sony walkman was so solid, it was a pleasure to hold. it had density, it had heft. the cassette, pop it in, close it. a very satisfying sound. not just a click, click. it was a kathunk! it was a gorgeous, gorgeous machine. it provided you with the soundtrack to your life.
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>> transformers and cabbage patch dolls may be the two top toy sellers this year, but for adults there's only one hot item, the vcr. >> christmas shoppers have again made the video cassette recorder one of the year's hottest gifts for grown-ups. they're selling at a rate of a million units per month. but the vcr is a lot more than a popular christmas gift. it's an invention some say is changing the whole idea of television. >> there are so many inventions where you can trace their success back to the smashing of a limitation, and the vcr smashed the limitation of time. >> most people use vcrs for what they call time shifting. let's say this sunday is your parents' 50th wedding anniversary, but you can't miss the steelers. what you do is set the timer on your recorder, pop in a tape, and watch the steelers when you get home. >> it just changed the paradigm of television. >> the makers of tv programs and movies shown on television claim their films lose their rerun value when they're recorded on home videotape recorders and played later.
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the movie studios said this violated the copyright laws and sued the home recorder manufacturers for allegedly instigating widespread in the home law breaking. >> you cannot have high-class entertainment if 50 million taping machines are out there in an unauthorized fashion with no compensation to owners, taking from them what rightfully belongs to them. >> the supreme court today answered a multibillion-dollar business question affecting the wallets of millions of americans and one of the nation's fastest growing forms of recreation. home videotaping. the court ruled 5-4 that use of the home machine to tape programs is legal and violates no copyright law. >> not only did the movie industry lose that one but they were totally wrong. the vcr turned us into a nation of movie nuts. >> it may be the fastest-growing business in america. the sale of video cassette tapes that people buy, or more often rent, to play at home on their video cassette recorders.
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>> more than 24,000 retail outlets across america now rent or sell tapes of all kinds. >> you go to a video store and pick something out that you missed. in the old days, if you missed a movie, you'd miss the movie. >> and the market's not restricted to blockbuster films. jane fonda through her workout tapes has shown one can make money with a product geared specifically to the home video market. >> the success of camcorders marks the second phase of the video revolution. not just taking movies home but making them at home. and anywhere else you happen to go. >> i was the kid who had a camcorder. it was the size of kentucky, and it had to be, because it played vhs cassettes. >> the setup can be used by just about anybody. its advantage over film is about to revolutionize the industry. >> there's no developing. you can rewind and record over it if you didn't like the take. that is an enormous shift. >> americans buy billions of dollars of electronic equipment. but just when you think you've bought the latest in audio and video, there's a new generation of gear which has clearer pictures and better sound.
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like them or not, video games are the youth phenomenon of our day. quarter by quarter, $6 billion got fed into video game slots last year. that's double what americans spent to go to the movies. >> people flock to them because the arcade game could afford expensive hardware at the time. and the hardware had enough power to do things we'd never seen before. >> there was essentially an arcade in every mall, in every street corner. the lunch money was not safe if there was an arcade around. >> arcade games at the time were the first machine that we could really interact with. we could cause a world to do something. so we'd grab a joystick and move a character around or fire something at a spaceship. we've never had experience like that before. >> the popularity of these video games is nothing short of a social phenomenon. pac man is seemingly everywhere. >> retailers can't keep the home version stocked. one dealer describes the demand. >> phenomenal. telephone's ringing every five minutes. it's pac man mania. >> my big memory of the '80s was
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my best friend got this $300 console that connected to your tv. you just play this thing forever, and it was the first time anyone had ever seen anything but tv on a tv. and i thought, wow, this is technology. >> the imaginary rockets are controlled by the same chips the u.s. army used in their defense programs. but the significance of the chip does not only lie in gadgets. her whole future will be changed by the silicon chip business. >> it was discovered that you could actually etch a whole lot of transistors onto a piece of of silicon, which was basically a cheap substance that could be mass-manufactured. >> these chips can control the flow of electrical current that in effect enables them to store and remember zillions of bits of information on a surface just a little bit thicker than an eggshell and smaller than a fingernail. >> this silicon chip supplies the brainpower for 1,001 electronic gadgets from wristwatches to microwave ovens.
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>> the mushrooming industry gives birth to a new high-tech cult and a place called silicon valley. >> the magic part of silicon valley is that there was this boiling pot of people who were involved in technology, involved in science. >> silicon valley was hp, sri, xerox park, and stanford university. that was a hell of a powerful combination. >> there was these two cultures, engineers with ph.d.s and hobbyists. >> it was a time when there was a lot of social ferment in and around the bay area. there was a lot of counterculture people. so you had cheap semiconductors. you had people that would look at things differently than what the conventional person was. and that's what the technology needed then. >> one of the things that was really hard about making a computer was now on a chip. so all of a sudden, people who had a thirst for this stuff could go out and buy a home brew computer. you could make them yourself.
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>> there was a lot of this kind of revolutionary thing with a lot of the technical people who were into the changes in technology and how we were a part of it. even though at our companies we were generally the fringe element. we had the jeans and we're not the managers and the leaders. but boy, just a clever design on its own had value. >> you had these guys like steve jobs and steve wozniak and bill gates and paul allen who'd been messing around on the edges of what would become the personal computer industry. but no one in corporate america and no one in most of the homes of america thought that the personal computer was anything that would ever have, would ever even happen, let alone have any relevance to them. >> for all of us, the computer revolution was really exciting. it was like, wow, this is wide open. it was a group of people who want to make a change in the world. >> and eventually, the two forces in silicon valley, the hobbyists and the button-down business guys, ended up coming realized these things that the hobbyists were doing could lead to this whole new kind of product called a personal computer. >> it was at a home-grown
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computer club where steve wozniak and steve jobs first displayed the computer they'd been working on. and it caused a sensation. >> we had absolutely no idea what people were going to do to these things when we started out. as a matter of fact, the two people who it was designed for was woz and myself, because we couldn't afford to buy a computer kit on the market. and we got it working and showed it to some of our friends. and of course immediately everybody wanted one. >> woz was the technical genius and jobs was the marketing genius. and you needed both of those kinds of mindsets to actually make this new technology work and create this company out of thin air called apple. >> since the apple computer company was founded five years ago, its sales have skyrocketed from about $100,000 to more than $100 million. with the most popular typewriter-sized computer on the market today. steven jobs is now 26 years old and he sees his computer's future as the future of mankind. >> how many calculators do you own? >> two, maybe. >> right. and you use the automatic bank telling machines? >> sure. >> so life is already seducing
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you into learning this stuff. it's not going to happen at once and it's certainly not a 1984-ish vision at all. it's just going to be very gradual and very human and will seduce you into learning how to use it. >> random access memory is internal memory built inside of this computer. >> these new computers were rough, big, ugly, difficult to use inventions when they first came out. >> it would crash and you would have to figure out what to do. it would not always create the right results. so it really did take a mindset of someone willing to cut it some slack. >> small steps, don't take big steps. >> okay. >> everybody kind of agreed this could be the next great thing after the printing press if we do it right. it's not just having a machine. the world needed to be made better. those are the things that actually can lift a society into a new way of thinking. >> industry experts say we're no longer on the verge of the personal computer revolution. we're right in the midst of it, thank you. and it's gathering steam with
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and it was a threatening concept. >> the 1980s is a period of time when the big, impersonal, giant machine that lives in a huge air-conditioned room someplace suddenly becomes something that sits on your desk. >> something is happening out there, something that's expanding your world. small computers are happening. >> as soon as we have intelligent machines creeping into our daily lives, into our factories, into our hospitals, into our businesses, then it's going to be a new world out there. >> computer stores have become the neighborhood soda shops of the binary generation. the disciples, young and old, of smart machines. >> companies that were starting to build personal computers, companies like atari, tandy, commodore, apple began to see them as a home market. and it was starting to seep into the public consciousness. >> personal computers have become the business of at least 25 manufacturers, with three companies -- radio shack, apple, and commodore -- grabbing
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three-quarters of the market. this personal computer costs about $1,400 and fits nicely on a desk corner. duplicating its performance just five years ago would have cost $75,000 and involve a unit the size of a large refrigerator. >> when the average american thought computer, they thought ibm. it made these mainframe computers that ran pretty much everything. >> ibm was one of the most powerful corporations in america. and in technology, it was the most powerful company that had ever existed in technology. >> because of this activity in personal computers, it started to make ibm look like it was somewhere behind the 8-ball. >> they look at the apple ii and say, huh, we could make one of those. we built the computers that put men on the moon. we'll get that business, squash these guys, no problem. >> ibm, international business machines, has entered the small computer market for the first time. >> the idea of the small computer has become so big that the giant of computer companies, ibm, is busy marketing its new
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small computer. >> it will, they say, give credibility to home computers. they'll no longer be just another new gadget. >> ibm has set an objective to build the office of the future. >> before ibm came in, companies would not think about buying personal computers, but suddenly, when ibm's selling one, now it becomes a safer decision. >> ibm's personal computer is designed for office, school or home use. it's aimed at exactly the same market as its competitors. >> when ibm started developing the ibm pc, it needed an operating system. and this young guy named bill gates had started this tiny little company called microsoft. >> bill gates was that unusual combination of a tech guy who was as good as the best tech guys, but he also had a business sense and he had a business vision. >> at the time everyone was making it up as they went along. there was nothing that came before it. there was no personal computer industry. so when gates said to ibm, how about this, we'll write you an
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operating system for your pc, and we'll get a cut of every machine you sell. and in addition, he made sure that it was not an exclusive license. that he was going to be able to sell this software to ibm, but he was also going to be able to sell the same software to the other people. because gates intuited that there were going to be people that would build knockoffs of ibm and the pc clones. >> it was a genius move on the part of bill gates, who was still in his early 20s when he made this decision. and you've got these guys at ibm in their blue shirts and dark ties looking at this company microsoft and saying like, who cares? software, who cares about software? man, we build these big machines. >> ibm did not realize it was essentially handing all this power to this little nerd. >> if you had stayed at harvard a few more years, would this computer revolution have passed you by? >> perhaps. things move very quickly in the industry, and it was really the urgency to get out there and be the first one to put basic on the microcomputer that caused me to drop out.
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>> if you don't have one, you will be amazed what these little gadgets can do. >> the idea was that ordinary people might have a use for computers. now, it took a while to figure out what those uses might be. >> the main thing was spreadsheets and word processing. the computer was the best typewriter you could ever have. it gave you a new way to write. you could change things around. and check your spelling. it would always look perfect. >> bottom line numbers. >> my dad had the large ledger sheets, done them all by hand, and i remember taking a computer to show him the spreadsheet. and suddenly, he understood the value of a personal computer. >> there was a drastic mindset change in the whole country about what a computer was. and happened over a very short period of time. >> gather around and we'll tell you a little bit more about the system. >> here at the west coast computer fair the speed of development in this industry is so great that each fair virtually outdates the previous
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one. >> well, it is lower prices that have helped the tremendous boom in home computer sales. about one home in ten will have a computer by the end of this year. by 1990 the number could be two out of three. >> we knew that the personal computer was getting serious when the competition started. because when you have competition, innovation gets stimulated. >> compaq. >> atari home computer. >> kaypro gives you a complete computer. >> this is the one. >> higher resolution. more storage and greater expandability than ibm's pc. >> ibm's entry heated up an already volatile market. one industry innovator, osborne computer, was forced into bankruptcy court last month. and apple, the industry's number one in small computers, had to concede it was now number two, behind ibm. >> all of a sudden, you were in an old-fashioned competitive business in which you really had to be better than the other guy. >> there are 150 microcomputer companies and all of them want 10% of the market, and that just isn't going to happen. our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night.
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starting to pop up in the mid 1980s, the customers were people who had a business reason for having these things. or some super-rich dude who just wanted to show off. the big breakthrough idea was the idea of cellular systems. >> it's called cellular because your car phone is tied into different radio transmitters, each one called a cell. as you travel, the signal from your phone travels from cell to cell. >> this was something that had never been done before. >> if you don't have one now, you probably will have one in a decade, say the phonemakers, as the price comes down into the range of other high-tech toys. >> there were people who understood even in the early days that being trapped in a car was not freedom. people are fundamentally, naturally mobile. >> i like to say the technology will go from a phone in the car to a phone in the briefcase to finally a phone in your pocket. >> and this is it. this is a portable cellular phone. you'll be able to take this to any american city and call virtually any place in the world, and its maker, motorola, says a smaller version than this
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will be on the market next year. >> your first cell phones look like soviet army field telephones. they're just these huge lunch boxes you hold up to your head. >> this is just the birth of this industry. all inventions start out in a very rough state. whether it's computers or cell phones. it took a while to refine them and make them into something that all of us use. >> you look at the bottom of your screen, it says "please press return" or -- >> the computer has become a national mania, and we're told, miss the electronic boat and you're sunk. >> in the future, everything's probably going to be computerized. so you're going to have to know how to use computers. >> my son just took a computer class in school, and he's only 8 years old. i figure i'd just as soon be as smart as he is. >> for all you hear about friendly, they aren't really, except for playing pac man. >> a small snag in computer marketing has been what is called technophobia. fear of these bloodless little
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wizards. the manufacturers are trying to overcome it by making them what they call user-friendly. >> isn't that pretty? now what do i do? >> making computers easy enough to use for a beginner, it wasn't always true. people had never encountered this stuff. >> hold down shift and press -- >> you missed it. >> so there was a great disconnect between the ambitions of the apples and microsofts and the realities of people trying to use these things for the first time. >> right now, if you buy a computer system and you want to solve one of your problems, we immediately throw a big problem right in the middle of you and your problem, which is learning how to use the computer. substantial problem to overcome. once you overcome that, it's a phenomenal tool. >> steve jobs thought that a computer should require no technical skill. he thought that it should be
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capable of generating artistic endeavors and not just number-crunching business things. >> is there anything that you'd like to see? >> we'd love to have it in a book right now, you know, about this size, but that's technically impossible. >> steve's like, i want to make a friendly computer, a computer that comes from a different kind of place, that owes its inspiration to people who are thoughtful and creative and human and humane. >> morning, chris. >> this is an experimental office system of the xerox research center in palo alto, california. >> anything else? what about flowers? my anniversary. i forgot. >> xerox in the 1980s was one of the most exciting companies in america. xerox had this booming copier business. it wasn't a personal computer company, but they opened up this lab called the palo alto research center. >> xerox park was xerox's think tank. they were working on all these crazy, out-there ideas which included the mouse and overlapping windows and fonts and graphics on a computer
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screen. just to see if they could do it. >> steve jobs hears about some of this work going on at this lab, and he wants a look. >> xerox park was an innovation place, apple was an innovation place. steve was very visual. and he could see right away the graphic interface was different and more communicative than anything he'd seen before. he knew that it was effective, because it was affecting him. >> jobs realizes, this is the future of computing. this is a whole different kind of computer to be built. famously, a computer for the rest of us. >> 1984. the ridley scott commercial for the macintosh. >> it depicted a very thinly disguised representation of ibm's scary 1984's leader on a big screen saying that this tiny little company, apple, is going to destroy the reigning power. >> we shall prevail.
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>> on january 24th, apple computer will introduce macintosh. >> the personal computer war heated up today. apple computer officially unveiled its new macintosh. >> i'd like to let macintosh speak for itself. >> hello, i am macintosh. [ cheers and applause ] >> the introduction of the mac was an event. steve jobs really did think of the mac as a thing that would change the world. >> apple is betting $100 million and admittedly its future, to make inroads against ibm. >> apple felt like a rock band. it had the same kind of spirit. they seemed to be going up against the man in ibm. >> it is aimed at a largely untapped market of managers, professionals, and students. while they make up about 75% of the white collar workforce, less than 5% now use computers, mostly because of their complexity. macintosh is designed for simplicity. using a palm-sized unit called a
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mouse. >> it was the first time that a machine was personal, it was simple, it was friendly. >> it took the computer out of the exclusive domain of geeks and nerds and people who had memorized those commands and put it on the desk of everybody. untrained, nontechnical people. >> stores around the country put them on sale today, and analysts say it's a good bet that macintosh could soon be the biggest apple of the industry's eye. >> it's got its best years ahead of it, eventually i want to be able to carry my mac around with me, walk around with it in my pocket. >> pocket computer? >> yes. >> you really like that mac. would you trade it for an ibm? >> are you kidding? >> as material sciences progress, more and more circuitry keeps getting put on smaller and smaller chips, circuit boards. so the closer together elements on a chip are, the faster the motion of signals between them. >> there was something called moore's law, named for gordon moore, one of the engineers who
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worked at intel. basically it was an observation that the computer engineers are getting to the point where they can essentially double the computing power of a computer chip every 18 months or so. >> and this was what really made the power of computers explode in the 1980s. because every 18 months these things were getting twice as good. >> you could basically get the whole computer on a chip. it was less expensive to manufacture. so you had smaller, which led to faster, which led to cheaper. >> under any other field of consumer products, things get more expensive over time. milk, gasoline, houses, but not technology. >> one of the striking things about the development of especially hardware during the 1980s was the fact that it was getting so much more powerful so rapidly, that there developed a strong tendency on the part of people who were about to buy a computer, should i buy the computer today? no, in fact, if i wait six months, for the same money i can get twice the computer.
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>> the reason we are attracted to computers is it is a power tool that gives me power that i feel i should have had, but nature left me without. and i can now exploit more of my potential with a computer. (driver 1) it's all you. (driver 2) no, i insist. (driver 1) it's your turn. (burke) get farmers and you could save money with the safe driver discount just by having a clean driving record for three years. get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. (driver 3) come on! ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ i don't hydrate like everyone else. because i'm not everyone else. they drink what they're told to drink. i drink what helps me rehydrate and recover: pedialyte® sport.
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if all goes according to plan, "columbia," this nation's first space shuttle, will fly like a skylark next march. >> if the shuttle program works the way it's been designed to, it will be a technological feat rivaling america's visit to the moon, a major moment in the history of flight. >> the space shuttle had new systems, new technology. the primary thing is the fly by wire system. which is you don't have pulleys and cables, it's all done by electronics. all the commands go through a computer. >> it was built as the world's first reusable spaceship, one that would commute to space carrying scientists and satellites. >> the most important thing was the digital revolution of faster, more powerful computers with complex software. >> computers are absolutely necessary to fly a spacecraft like the shuttle. it's the most sophisticated, most complex system that has been put into space yet.
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>> first time i saw "columbia" and got close to it, my whole thought was, oh my god, it's big. and this is going to go 17,500 miles per hour? >> more than half a million people crowded the beaches around cape kennedy this morning if witness firsthand the first space shuttle launch. >> t-minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four -- we've gone for main engine start -- >> we added a giant fuel tank to it and two solid rocket boosters that are the largest pop bottle rockets on the planet. when you light that puppy, it's going somewhere. >> america's first space shuttle. and the shuttle has cleared the tower. >> "columbia," houston, you're going 40. >> i am in the mission control center, but it's only after the
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fact that you get into orbit that your mouth drops and you calm down and go wow, that's amazing. >> and the vehicle is performing like a champ, like all of us who have worked so long on it knew that she would. i think we've got something that's really going to mean something to the country and the world. >> the astronauts have about 14 more hours in space before they touch down tomorrow in california's mojave desert. >> we were in l.a. and we heard the sonic boom. that was it, that was it! it's coming down. >> there it is. >> right on the glide slope, "columbia." >> putting that all together in a technology to make it fly and then landing is remarkable. nothing like it had ever been done. >> touchdown. >> there, they're down. >> i said, it worked. the damn thing worked. >> the day will come, according to nasa, that a launch will be so routine that the press and television won't even bother to cover it. >> 30 weeks later, after "columbia" had been returned to the kennedy space center, astronauts joe engle and dick
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truly flew "columbia" into space again. >> space shuttle was like a large truck that could deploy satellites, and it had a robotic arm so that you can repair and upgrade spacecraft. >> and liftoff of the orbiter "challenger" and the sixth flight of the space shuttle. >> this was the birth of space travel, not just space missions. we're talking about setting a laboratory. almost like a university in space. and it started feeling like anybody could be an astronaut. >> the countdown is under way tonight at cape canaveral toward sunday's scheduled launch of the shuttle "challenger," a liftoff that will carry america's first teacher into space. >> still doesn't seem real that i'm going to be able to go with these guys. i'm excited. >> the ice is cleared away, and "challenger" should be going away very soon. let's go down to the kennedy space center and take a look at "challenger" sitting on the pad as they continue the countdown. >> the "challenger" flight in january of '86 was the 25th flight of the space shuttle. but it was an especially notable
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one because hundreds of thousands if not millions of schoolkids around the country were tuned into the launch. >> it was the first mission i wasn't in the mission control center. i was outside, standing next to the families. >> t-minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one -- liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission, and it has cleared the tower. >> roger roll, "challenger." >> good roll, flight. >> my responsibilities for the flight i was spacecraft communicator at capcom, was the one actually communicating with the crew. >> engine throttling up. 104%. >> "challenger," go with throttle up. >> going with throttle up. >> i was looking at my screen,
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and i turned and looked. and i did not understand or recognize what i saw. it didn't make sense to me, because it was this fiery mess. >> we've had negative contact. >> there was this angry, red glow. and this wail. from the hearts of the family, because they knew what i knew. that "challenger" crew was gone. >> today is a day for mourning and remembering. the future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted. it belongs to the brave. the "challenger" crew was pulling us into the future. and we'll continue to follow
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them. there will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews, and yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. nothing ends here. our hopes and our journeys continue. >> to honor our fallen, we have to find this and fix it and fly it again. >> within a matter of days we knew it was a solid rocket booster joint that had failed. the o-ring was a flawed design that had led to the loss of the "challenger." >> during the 30 months since the "challenger" accident, there have been hundreds of hardware changes not only to the rocket booster but also to the orbiter and the large liquid rocket fuel tank. numerous software changes had been implemented. all had been tested exhaustively. >> i wanted the opportunity to fly on that first return flight, and i was fortunate, being assigned to that crew.
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>> three, two, one, zero, and liftoff. liftoff. americans return to space. >> i tell you, i held my breath for two minutes until i saw the solid rocket motors come out. we continued on into orbit. >> we have resumed the journey we promised to continue for you. theratears® is one-of-a-kind hydration that feels like silk. theratears®. a drop like no other™. one day you might realize going to grandma's doesn't count as vacation. when you decide to go to that amusement... -no. -no. when you decide to go to hawaii. aloha.
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at the white house. this is cnn. this is topo, manufacturers predicts that within a few years, robots like these will liberate us from mundane and time-consuming household chores. >> they will guard your house. he will be your companion and bring you a soft drink out of the refrigerator. >> you don't need to tell us this is necessary, this is just fun. >> things always start out, telephones or whatever, they always start out as a luxury
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and turn into a necessity. >> i do robotics. that company failed. i believe that if you can envision science-fiction, and do it, of course we can have robots running around the house. why is going to buy this? >> one of the problems, the engineering mentality, we build it because we can. >> some items have more functions than you might dream, like the margrave of and covers tv security system. eventually they invented bike waves to get you out of the kitchen and now you don't have to leave. >> first in dash portable car video system. >> the big picture is frustrating, and exhilarating for him to watch the way technologies evolve. >> there is a memo pad and it would beep to tell us what's going on. >> we will hang around a television. >> almost nobody can say we are going to take technology to this point.
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it is much more chaotic. things rise and bubble and fall back and great ideas pop out, but nobody can find a use for it so it goes away. it is a confluence of developments happening at the right time. >> small and portable for the 90s, according to manufacturers showing wares in chicago. sony has a new camcorder that fits in your hand and a combination tv and vcr that goes into your purse or briefcase. >> if you have one of these and you have one of these, you do not have one of these, you are missing half the fun of owning a computer. this is a modem and with it you can turn your computer into a window on the world. >> the first time i went on learned online a was it was no internet. there's this whole world out there. >> is 23 people in the lobby and we can type a message. it'll broadcast everybody in the room. >> does anyone say anything
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meaningful? >> their social banter. it's an area for people to just meet friends and talk about whatever their interest sarr. >> what about people falling in love and getting married? >> my very first time, i remember the modem dialing, and a chat room with 12 other people typing in real time from wherever they had to be, it blew me away. >> it's tremendous demand. if you look at the online services, bulletin board, there is liberty literally a hyper culture developing. >> it multiplies the power of what a computer was. >> computer service accessed, but check shopping online for christmas gifts. you can buy and sell stocks. experts tell us all of this is the tip of the iceberg. >> there were all kinds of
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crazy ideas that really foreshadow the next explosion of technology. >> the drive through aspen by touching the tv screen. >> is reasonable to assume that our children will have such devices? >> it's reasonable to assume you have these in your home in a short amount of time. >> the thing about decades is they don't often actually arrive on time. when it comes to technology, it did. the world changed in the 1980s in the world we live in now was born, in some ways. >> this is the decade in which technology in general made our personal lives that much richer and easier than they had been before. at least, those of us i could figure out which button to push. we went from innovation to innovation, taking an idea into the product. >> concepts of digital, random
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access, portable, and cheap, started to catch on. >> different ways to communicate with friends, different ways to experience virtual worlds. i don't think we have seen a decade like that. >> is where it will reside. >> what is happening today is truly a revolution in the deepest sense of the word. it will be hard to recognize the way we live. >> technology can make our lives better. technology means anything is possible. >> at the fascinating future, one in which computer scientists are beginning to question. with the free flow of information, can someone topping my computer and invade my privacy. will electronic mail, lead to junk mail, will stores as we know it disappear? too many shoppers like squeezing tomatoes? will we wind up with a cashless
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and paperless society and do we want one? these are the social questions scientists say society should answer. and money matters, wall street. leaping stocks have investors jumping. >> we will turn the ball loose. >> one of the great things is we can seek profit. >> is money the number one goal? >> you have 29-year-old making $1 million a year. >> if you have plastic money there is nothing holding you back. >> history will prove the bakers were honest people. insider trading could become wall street's watergate. >> what we call greed? >> we have called it success, recently
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