What do computers, telephones and EPCOT Center have in common? Apparently a lot more than you might think. So come along, as we take a journey through more than 40 years worth of technology history to try and figure out the park’s long-forgotten information system.
Pastebin to all the websites, blogs and forums I referenced or got information from: https://pastebin.com/Y2mw3tAM
Thanks for watching.
28 Comments
Those people in the video were definitely actors. Because I’m positive the one man played an IRS agent in an episode of theGoldenGirls (also a Disney production).
He’s biosed*
in 1982 i was just a toddler but what blows my mind is the fact there was touchscreen Tech back then and it worked on a CRT monitor y did it take another 25 years before that became a common staple in new device's .
Nice seeing my old colleague Floyd Kalber in that AT&T archive clip 32 minutes in.
i loved this video an awful lot, and it's extremely fascinating, but damn that transition that starts at 32:32 was clean as fuck, great job lol
I think you have just unlocked a memory. I always remembered playing with an interactive screen, and saying this was the future, but I never knew where from. I went to Florida Disney in 1997, when I was 14. I remember that animal kingdom was being built.
I think these were the computers I used and was wowed by.
I remember World Key well from when I was a kid visiting Epcot. Was an amazing system and part of and experience with computers that stretched beyond what we could see on the Commodore 64s back home.
it’s crazy that somehow as someone born in 2001 who grew up with the internet my whole life (basically), i still feel like i can fully appreciate how mindblowing this all is once it’s actually explained to me. i can’t imagine what it must’ve been like to experience using these systems as an average person back in the day
I used it in 7th grade to make reservations for dinner at Germany 🇩🇪 it’s an awesome memory.
I vaguely remember them from when I was really little. EPICO was my favorite 😍
Imagine if they were allowed to use their control of the network to prevent the Internet.
It's crazy the amount of control a few companies have that stifle real innovation
There was a time when Disney was a leader in innovation and Epcot was their World's Fair. A long, long time ago..
Wait a second "Standard Oil" of "New York"? Didn't that become S.O.N.Y. that later dropped the dots?
Gay vida
if you think about it as we sit here either at our own computers or on our phones, the vision did come true which would explain why disney had to remove the system from the attraction. the whole concept of a never ending worlds fair is to display things that people will use in the future. and when that future came and it was wide spread…well the attraction aspect is no longer showing anything futuristic and begins to look outdated.
so in essence outside of the fact that the internet we use itself was a technology created by the US government for its military and other functions, ultimately all the ideas came together to give the wider public the very thing worldkey was trying to postulate.
and see the comment about the actor and watching the shared clip…i cant unsee it now and i am now questioning any and all disney "documentaries" that have "imageneers" or other so called staff answering questions.
A great job indeed but wish that you would have provided a link to the full Epcot Worldkey video so we could have watched without interruptuin.
Every time I see a review of this it’s looking back on how elementary it was compared to today but I remember how astounding it was. At the time I was interested in computers and getting ready for my first hear of high school to use the commodore pet with a cassette tape for storage.
Laser disk was also a new technology. Even though the laser disk was simply storage it was still one piece of technology controlling another. Files were retrieved on the laser disk and rendered to the screen.
This system was impressive and groundbreaking and but was a great character. For at the time a keyboard and command line knowledge was the only way to talk. So lose the snark people. This was amazing at the time.
Success! This is exactly the point of having these technologies in the theme parks
8 seconds in to this video and I understood that Star Wars reference. 🤣
Egzon?
What is that women's hair at 11:46. It's like she's wearing a helmet made of condensed 1970's.
I remember the Sperry systems when I was there shortly after it opened. (Takes off glasses dramatically) Not sure about that Bit thing, which seemed dodgy even then. Seriously tho, I remember there was a place where you could peer down into a computer machine room from above – I think I saw a reference to it on a forum, but there's not much information out there. But I thought that was more impressive than the LVD kiosks.
Happy to see you back!!!!!!
In late 1980 something. I remember how cool it was to make a dinner reservation, for France, via this system. As a kid I was blown away and I remember my dad being amazed by it.
I remember making dinner reservations in may of 2002 via video. IF I recall correctly it was at the information booth on the left side of Spaceship Earth, it was a little covered area. I haven't been to Disney in about a decade but I remember that distinctly for some reason.
God I wish I had some sort of a time machine to witness this place (but the kind that you can't interact with the past, just see)
Our first visit to Epcot Center was in 1986 and I certainly remember using the WorldKey to make dining reservations. I also remember seeing a touch free water faucet in the restroom for the first time and thinking how utterly amazing that was.