Depending on your age, you’ve probably seen at least a few generations of technology. It’s amazing how quickly the sizes and shapes of our gadgets can change as the technology improves. The Chicago Tribune compiled a photo essay of gadgets that once were futuristic, but now might as well be from the Flintstones. Above: the fabled videodisc, predecessor to the modern DVD.

Click: High-tech once upon a time – chicagotribune.com

There are few technologies that have grown as quickly or as dramatically as telephones. Above, a child uses one of the first picture phones in 1972 and an operator demonstrates old and new (at the time) telephones in 1955. The new telephone is a rotary dial, something that would completely baffle most young people today. Also above, the changing cell phone: left, the “brick” phone in 1989. Right, the 1985 briefcase telephone with its own built-in transceiver.

Click: High-tech once upon a time – chicagotribune.com