Comment on I want an AI TV that blocks all forms of advertising.

• trigonated@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  “See how you can call people with your telephone? It’s like that, but you can send text messages instead. All telephones have a little screen to display the message.”

  I don’t think people from the 80s would have much trouble understanding sms, tbh. Especially people from the USA, who were already “writing” with numbers, like 1-800-LEMMY.

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  • Baaahb@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Or, and hear me out, you could say “portable fax” and be done with it. YOU are making it complicated by not being culturally acclimated to the timeframe when it was written. Everyone knew what faxes were, no explanation was necessary.

    Portable fax: thing that sends and receives messages

    Portable Fax IS how you describe SMS in the 80s.

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    • VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Pagers were in somewhat common use in the 60s, by 1980 wide area paging was on the market offering the ability to send text messages to portable devices anywhere in the country - I’d describe sms as two way pagers.

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      • Baaahb@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        That’d work, Sagan opted for portable fax.

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