Time and Tech Stumble Onward!

All of these ads are from the April 27, 1981 issue of Time mag.

The company Compucorp still exists as Compuco

Kodak exists and wants you to tour its smart factory

Pioneer's LaserDisc, like the postmodern CD, used a laser to read digital info.

In contrast, RCA's VideoDisc was a magnetic storage system.  

A comparison of the techs here.

And 40 years later, all of these functions are in the phone in somebody's back pocket.  Progress?  You tell me.