...cable bringing 40 options into your home.
I believe that it's the revolution of the future.
How can we use it?
By offering individuals
the possibility of choosing themselves
the images and sounds they wish to receive,
not only for entertainment
or education,
but also for all practical activities in life.
THE POSSIBILITIES
Already,
television can bring
programmed learning home.
Tomorrow, on a screen of limitless size,
it will let us select our own programs.
Even home alone,
we'll be able to choose board games over puzzles
and play with either a remote friend or a computer.
Television will be the great mail-order catalog.
Better yet, just pressing a button,
will convey the customer's choice and send the order.
Newspapers, letters, telegrams, fines
will appear without delay.
It will be possible to replicate texts on paper at will,
to be read and archived.
One may wonder whether the word "television" really matches
this extraordinary, new, free circulation
of images and sounds that we can foresee.
For us, "television" is linked
to the notion of broadcasting,
a transmission on air waves.
Moreover, "television" implies some kind of passivity.
On the contrary, everything we can see coming via this cable,
implies the active participation of each of us.
Basically, we can't find the right word.
Audiovisual, audiovisual equipment? No.
I'm waiting for linguists to find a word.
In my opinion, this new word will define very well
the great possibilities of travelling images and sounds.