A 45-Year-Old Electronics Prediction
Joel Samberg was no expert, but he made the call anyway
There comes a time when you may just want to give yourself credit. Humorist Joel Samberg calls that his pat-myself-on-the-back experience and shares his long-ago electronics prediction. Did it come to pass?
I have never been a pat-myself-on-the-back sort of guy, and at 69 years of age I’m not about to start now. But be honest: don’t you sometimes wish a few of those moments could be shared, just to make yourself feel good about something? I have this column with which to pat myself; how will you do it?
Here’s one pat-myself-on-the-back moment based on something that happened about 45 years ago.
My best friend from high school, Bob, is a very technological guy. That’s how he’s made his living ever since graduating college with me in 1979. He has worked for a number of high-tech audio companies. He can build anything electronic. He even has a few patents. I respect his opinion on all technological matters.
One day my wife and I visited Bob and his new wife in their new apartment. It was a very nice place, adorned with all kinds of modern electronic gadgets. He showed us his latest purchase, a brand-new gizmo that was introduced to the market just a few weeks earlier. It was a Sony Walkman, an audio device that was smaller than a paperback book and played a single cassette tape, or about 12 songs in all. Easy to carry, easy to use, full stereo sound. Pretty cool. I’m a music-lover like Bob and told him how impressed I was with his new toy. And then I added something that made him laugh at me. I said, “You know what I think? I think that in about 35 years they’ll come out with something that will be a lot smaller—maybe the size of a postage stamp—that will be able to play a hundred songs.”
Bob not only disagreed, but gave me a few technically oriented reasons why it was an impossible idea.
Skip ahead. Today I use an Apple iPod whenever I take a walk. It’s actually smaller than a postage stamp and holds 250 songs, in full stereo sound.
Did you hear that noise? It’s the sound of me giving myself a pat on the back.
I’ve had other ideas about future products, and I’m wondering if one day I’ll be able to give myself several additional pats. For example, I used to firmly believe that one day we will be able to record our dreams at night and play them back the next day. I’ve mentioned this to several people, a few of whom commented that creating a product like that will forever be completely impossible.
Then, shortly after I made that prediction, I had a scary thought. What if one day my wife got hold of one of my dream tapes, played it back, and saw me making love to someone other than her?
It was at that point that I made another prediction: we will never be able to create a product that records our dreams at night and plays them back in the morning. I know I’m right, which is why I’m gonna give myself a pat on the back.
Joel Samberg’s work has appeared in Pittsburgh Magazine, Hartford Magazine, Brooklyn Magazine, Moment Magazine and many others. He also writes the popular monthly “Off Ramp” column for Connecticut Magazine, for which he recently won first place in the humor column category from the Connecticut division of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is also the author of eight published books. Recently Joel founded a community theater and performing arts group in Avon, Connecticut, called Playhouse 44.
Read more Boomer humor in our Humor department, grins from Greg Schwem and heartfelt smiles from Randy Fitzgerald.
