UPDATE AND CORRECTION: Oooooops! Kevin Drum informs me the picture below was a spoof. My bad; the steering wheel should have tipped me off. Sorry!
Second update Another reader points me to a Snopes.com explanation: the item is a submission to a photo-spoofing context; it’s based on a submarine control room.
A third reader (out of a total of nineteen who have written in so far to set me straight) points out another anachronism; FORTRAN development didn’t start until 1954. Tim Lambert identifies the “teletype” as a 1970′s-vintage Decwriter.
Here’s the good news: Since we now know that any false assertion posted on this site will be immediately contradicted and retracted, any unretracted assertion can be taken to be 100% true.
A reader sends this image from Popular Mechanics of 1954.
Well, at least it runs FORTRAN. But does the teletype have a spam filter?
Futures Past
Mark Kleiman of the Reality Based Community posts a hilarious picture of what a home computer in 2004 will look like, according Popular Mechanics in 1954. No word on what the steering wheel does.