Cable TV: The First Internet?

Back in 1970, Mike Wallace reported on a new technology that he said would change the way we send mail and consume the news. The Internet? Nope. Cable television.

"60 Minutes Overtime" unearthed this time-capsule of a piece, and we had to share it as this week's "Rewind."

When CBS aired this story, cable TV was developing as a two-way communication system. And much of Mike's piece is a survey of the possible uses of a home cable box that could transmit, as well as receive, signals. As you'll see, many of the functions that were predicted for cable TV ended up in our home computers and mobile phones.

Forty years have passed since Mike posed a question about the technologies that would later become the Internet: Will it "invade our privacy, tranquilize our children, and remove us electronically from the flesh-and-blood world"? Do we know enough by now to give him an answer?