Office of the future
From ArticleWorld
The phrase office of the future dates back to the 1940s and the Memex series of machines. The concept overlaps considerably with the newer 'paperless office', and also links back to futuristic early 20th century models for mechanising secretarial and household work that were sporadically presented at World's Fairs and in Hollywood movies. The concept of vast machines to perform tasks ranging from sorting information to housekeeping was familiar. In the 1960s more recognisably computer-based machines for 'offices of the future' were presented in usable form, with more specialized functions. Today the phrase is revived in numerous contexts, including assessing the place in the future of administrative staff. An interesting commonality in all such models is that they are designed, physically, to work like a 'real' workspace or desk. There is also interest in them as art.
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Memex machines
The Memex machine system was a sci-fi vision. First proposed by Vannevar Bush in July 1945 in the The Atlantic in an article called As We May Think, the concept was presented again shortly after with lavish illustrations in Life magazine. The system was based on high resolution microfilm on which scientists would collate and store huge amounts of data, and connect all that together with hyperlinks. The system had many other features, some of which are barely functional even in today's light-years-ahead computing systems, such as voice-activated typewriting. Building and monitoring this database would have involved a massive human effort, and a single Memex system would have taken up a large amount of office space.
Punch cards to Starfire
From the late 1950s computing was being used in some areas of government research and corporate work, but these computers were primitive giants that used punch cards, took up entire floors, and were slow. In the 1960s Xerox PARC and Alan Kay devised the Dynabook, a slate-like personal computer that worked for artistic and mathematical exploration, but wasn't much use in the office.
The office of the future got a rest as real developments overwhelmed fantasy, but in 1994 it resurfaced in Sun Microsystems' Memex-type Starfire video prototype, which also briefly presented something like the web, in addition to being integrated with public telephony and allowing videoconferencing. Like Memex, this too was a giant destined to remain an attractive touchstone for futurists.
Desks for the future
Most recently both Microsoft and IBM have been working on models for offices of the future IBM's Bluespace is a series of connected elements and devices that can all fit into a typical cubicle, while Microsoft's D# Broadbench does everything but make toast and virtually encloses the person using it, giving credence to the standard fears that technology drives people apart.
Art and future offices
Together with the work of Italian futurists like Antonio Sant'Elia, there is considerable aesthetic and artistic fascination with a number of these prototypes. Artists, architects, industrial designers, and sociologists find it instructive to play theoretically with the possibilities of such a workplace, and many of the manifestos and models are considered works of art.