At the time, rotary phones were the norm, and the idea of a portable, all-encompassing communication device seemed like science fiction. But as the article reported, Mark R. Sullivan, president and director of Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. in San Francisco, had a bold vision for the “telephones of the future.” Though he admitted it was “pure speculation,” his predictions were strikingly close to what we now experience daily—constant connectivity, handheld devices, and an inescapable digital presence. Looking back, it’s a reminder that what seems far-fetched today might just be tomorrow’s reality.
1953 newspaper predicted 'There'll be no escape from telephones', and it has us spooked
Although the man said it was 'pure speculation,' nearly everything he said has come to pass.
Even the most groundbreaking technological advancements start as mere ideas—flickers of imagination that, over time, become reality. That’s what makes a recently resurfaced newspaper article from 1953 so fascinating. A clipping from The Tacoma News Tribune, now making the rounds on social media, seemingly predicted the modern smartphone era long before it arrived. The article’s headline read, “There’ll be no escape in future from telephones,” a statement that feels eerily accurate in today’s hyper-connected world. A screenshot of the article was shared on X by Ticker History, sparking discussions about the foresight of early tech visionaries.
Article on Telephones from 1953 pic.twitter.com/Rq9VBQ1PzW
— Ticker History 🗞 (@TickerHistory) March 27, 2024
“In its final development, the telephone will be carried about by the individual, perhaps as we carry a watch today. It probably will require no dial or equivalent, and I think the users will be able to see each other if they want as they talk. Who knows but what it may actually translate from one language to another,” the original snippet by Sullivan read.
Since phones today are indeed “carried about by an individual” and users don’t need to “see each other to talk,” this prediction proved to be highly accurate.
According to Snopes, the report in the clipping was written by the Associated Press and was published in several newspapers during 1953.
KQED reported that just three years before the date of this clipping, Sullivan “appeared in the San Francisco Examiner talking about the latest innovations in telephone technology.”
"The advancement he was most proud of was a new device about the size of a small typewriter that automatically calculated how long people’s phone calls were,” reported the outlet. Before leaving the world, Sullivan saw the first commercial cellphone adorn the shelves of the gadget market in 1983. The revolutionary Motorola DynaTAC 8000X cost a whopping $3,995 at the time, which would be over $11,000 today.
This clipping is not the only prediction that tech and science fiction geeks of the 20th century made. In 1949, author Ernst Jünger released a novel titled “Heliopolis.” It featured a fictional device called a “phonophore,” described as a "pocket device that works as a universal communicator." This fictional device is eerily similar to a modern smartphone.
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Nikola Tesla also made a similar prediction in 1926. “When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony, we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles, and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket,” he said, according to an Instagram post by @historycoolkids.
People online reacted to this newspaper clipping in a myriad of ways. @see.more.glass remarked, "I saw this when I woke up and grabbed my phone." Meanwhile, @helwergles said, "I don't know how it's gonna take place, but history books will refer to these days in which everyone in the subway car, including me, are totally absorbed by their screens."
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