Browsing my out-law's bookshelves i happend on this fun book, published in 1982 by Readers Digest 'The Inventions That Changed The World'.

The fun starts when they describe state of the art telecoms stuff:

"Intelligent" phones call often-used numbers at the press of a button and will divert calls to other numbers.

The ordinary telephone network is used by Printer-com machines to transmit and receive the printed word. They operate four times faster than Telex and the executive case version weighs 18lbs.

All well and good, but it made me look again at a book i bought for the kids earlier this year :

Guess it won't be long before we're chucking at pictures like these: