It's 2014, one year shy of the time of when Back to the Future II was set. And you know what? Our world is pretty fucking futuristic. You don't need to look further than your desk to realize how transformative technology can be.
Take a look back at a desk from 1980. Some nostalgic folks at the Harvard Innovation Lab recently recreated the desktop from 35 years ago and documented how it changed as technology evolved. All the goodies are there: a dictionary, a telephone, a Rolodex, a phone, a fax machine, an old Macintosh. Heck, there's even a Polaroid camera. Then, they went through each year between then and now, replacing the antiquated technology with contemporary technology.
The result seems kind of obvious. Desks used to be cluttered with things we needed to work! Now, all that stuff fits in a MacBook, and your desk is probably full of useless crap! But it's interesting to see the transformation happen as each year goes by and as each physical object gets replaced by an app or gadget.
You can watch the full timeline video here and even quickly learn the history of specific apps here. [Thanks Jill!]