Horizons Glimpse of the Future

The Disney Blog had a great post this week on Horizons with a nice video by Progressland about Disney predicting the future. I wanted to add my own little bit on one of the specific technologies at Horizon's that fascinated me as a kid. I was a fan of the attraction, although I was only able to experience it once in person. I remember dragging my family to see it because I had read about it before the trip (always a planner!).

One of my vivid memories of Horizons was watching people to talk to each other through their TV screens. Remember the parent's talking to their kids on Mars? I also loved 2001 A Space Odyssey and if you remember the same fictional technology was in use in that movie. For me, the reality is not as good as the SciFi version of it. You can't pick up all of the body language that you would in person but it's not a bad substitution particularly when you can't see people in person.

Here is The Munchkin, talking to her Auntie who loves 1500 miles away.

While we would prefer The Munch to see her family in person, she has been Skyping since birth, so it is second nature to her.

I think that this will be a fairly normal way to communicate, for her generation, and it won't seem weird or awkward at all. She loves to see her family this way and she's better at it and much more at ease with the technology than I am.