Woody Allen said that we are all interested in the future because that is where we will spend the rest of our lives. Those who try to guess this (cough, Apple, cough) usually fail spectacularly, but sometimes there are those who get it exactly right.

That’s what Xerox did. In a spectacular promotional video from 1979 It was saved by the Computer History Museum, among others. It shows a normal-looking office of the time, except for one thing: the protagonist, an employee who shows up with his coffee and heads to his office, sits at his desk, and begins using a computer to check his email and print it out for review. .

He then forwards the report to other business areas and seems satisfied until his computer shows him some flowers on the screen. From where? asks that employee. Because it’s their wedding anniversary and luckily the computer reminds them sarcastically. “No problem. We’re only humans,” he finishes, pointing at the computer screen.

If that ad hadn’t been released in 1979, it wouldn’t have been so surprising. almost no one mentioned computersand much less about emails (the first email in Spain was sent in 1985).

In fact, there seemed to be implications that interaction with this computer was – at least in the video – mediated through audio; This is something that wouldn’t happen until decades later, when assistants like Google Assistant, Siri or Cortana began populating our devices. .

But at Xerox, they already knew that the best way to predict the future was to create it. At the time, Xerox PARC was a magnificent institution filled with privileged minds trying to imagine what the future would be like to provide the tools to get there.

The computer seen in the ad It is the legendary Xerox Alto, released in March 1973., just over 50 years ago now. It was the first computer designed to be used via a graphical user interface, a revolutionary concept that represented a radical change compared to the traditional command console.

In 1979, when this very ad was released, Steve Jobs would finally visit the Xerox PARC facilities and see that computer and that concept.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Image | Gautier Poupeau

in Xataka | The photocopier that changed the world: Xerox 914