Time can do peculiar things to certain books. When 'The Micro Revolution', and its updated version 'Revisited' were first published the world of possibilities must have seemed boundless, and Disney's Tomorrowland finally seemed within our grasp!
Computers were going to revolutionise our way of life, transforming it into a utopia.

Peter Large was a true *freak (I mean this in a niçe way) at heart and his socialist ideals and wide eyed optimism for the future really come through in his writing.
You can't blame him too much either; IBMs colossal computer rooms had been managed and implemented by men in dark blue suits. The Personal Micro however was in every sense the tool of the people, the Hippie generation.

Not since our forefathers had picked up a piece of flint to fashion into whatever tool they required had mankind given himself the means to transform his way of life so drastically, driving his culture forward and allowing the creation of a new and better way of life.
Now here was the Micro, something available to everyone which would empower each citizen and usher forth the utopian society the *freaks had foretold while camped out on the grass at Phun City and Glastonbury a decade earlier, and computerised robots would be the answer.

Peter Large anticipated agricultural robots powered by the micro chip ploughing our fields and reaping our harvests. Automated trucks would take themselves on the roads distributing grain to wherever it was needed, guided by the demands of intelligent network links.
All this wealth literally pouring in would make our country rich beyond the dreams of avarice; and its citizens finally freed from the shackles of the everyday drudgery of work would be at liberty to explore their own paths towards personal enlightenment.

Wait a minute: automated farms? self guiding vehicles? These things certainly do exist today, but implementing the technology is proving more costly and complex than they did on paper.

This book got so much right though ; cashless transactions via computer, home banking, teleconferencing, PDAs, e-books and electronic newspapers (although the practices of people printing off their own newspaper at home seems pointless when you think about it).
Light pens for onscreen signature likewise have been circumvented by the simple user name and password system.
He also assumed that the familiar typewriter keyboard would be scrapped, replaced by voice commands only. He did however make allowances for automatic spell checkers and grammar and punctuation autocorrect software (although how could he have predicted anything as annoying as the Microsoft paperclip!).

Home robots feature heavily in Peter Large's future. Lots of little household machines doing chores like cleaning the windows and vacuum cleaner droids that once their tasks are completed would return to their designated charging point. Give that man a gold star!

All this menial work now taken over by robots suddenly gives everyone much less to do in Peter's world and more time to pursue lifes pleasures. Every citizen received from the state a minimum wage in exchange for certain civic duties and responsibilities to the community, and here even that is a bone of contention among some lazy dossers. Parliament to all intents and purposes has been permanently dissolved and much of the decisions on how we live our lives are voted on directly by the general public. And presumably because it is all done democratically, no body has cause to riot in the streets when they don't get their way! Just like the Hippies wanted.
The once skilled and well paid jobs of yesteryear such as the GP are now considered barely above minimum wage, since much is now achieved either via video link with the patient direct so treatments can be dispatched via courier; or, alternatively fully automated via a computer doctor who probes the patient for information on screen and then analyses the data to prescribe the most suitable and up to date treatments available.
Children can be exempt from attending formal schools as long as they follow the appropriate syllabus of the national school TV network. An assigned tutor also has direct contact with the student via video link and interactive games on the computer help the child learn.

Much of what Peter predicted does exist in one form or another today. But, we are clearly not living like Hanna-Barbera's the Jetsons catoon of the 60s either. In fact to all intents and purposes life has not evolved as much as one would have hoped; and someone transported from the mid 60's, fifty years into our future today would not see much on the surface that has changed. Why is this? That is a valid question. And the answer I suspect has less to do with available technologies as it does global politics. The socialist utopia of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek is still a fantasy even in 2015.

So, why am I reviewing a 30 year old technology book you may ask.
Well like I said in my opening statement: Time can do peculiar things to certain books.
It is always interesting to review a futurology study retrospectively to see how close the predictions were, but more importantly if the spirit of the great task at hand has been adhered to. As Peter pointed out himself in the first chapter 'anyone tempted to tackle even short-term futurology is wise to stick to straight projections from the theory, rather than play guessing games about what will actually happen'.
In this case the technology 'has' been developed, but rather lazily administered if at all. With the result that the great social revolution anticipated failed to materialise due in part to general lack off motivation and effort. Probably because nobody was altogether sure if this socialist vision of the future was something they actualy wanted in the first place. And that is often the big problem. A lack of direction and motivation in society.
It often takes a dramatic event such as a natural disaster or global war to really focus societies efforts.

People do demand change, but all too often they don't like too much all at once.

*freak, was a self-denigrating term once used by hippies to describe themselves. ( )