The technological surge inspired by NASA and the Japanese has ended. There aren’t going to be any more new toys. Consumers can’t afford new gizmos and manufacturers haven’t the money for further research and development. Consumer technology has stopped leaping and bounding. It ended two years ago with video portapaks, quadrophonic sound, pocket calculators, and Sony starting to make deliveries on the first home tv projector^.

Out of the fat times came very important innovations. Thumb-nail sized large-scale integrated circuits, called chips, were mass-produced to introduce consumer computer technology. Electronically controlled logic improved the reliability and convenience of leisure, like watching tv; helped make technics universal, like personal video and four channel sound; and advanced machines as electric aids, like pocket calculators and digital timepieces.

CBS Radio reported on President Ford’s income tax rebate plan after his chat with us from the White House Library. They did a quick survey of citizen reaction. One interview was with a Mississippi bottom-lands farmer who’d watched Ford’s spiel on tv, his pocket calculator in hand. “I don’t know about getting a thousand dollars back. The way I figure it, I’ll get $5.32 back in May and another $5.32 by September.”

We were rewiring ourselves to set our own parameters for living. Now that can’t happen. Consumer technology won’t make any major advances until the 2010’s and 20’s. Microcomputers, laser projections, and visual mass-access communications will have to wait until more play money is available.

What’s left to keep us amused? Most of us still have to catch up by getting digital clocks, digital wristwatches, pocket calculators, sophisticated sound systems, big screen tv’s, and video disc players.

The last item on the dream list hasn’t arrived yet. Viedo disc players were invented before the crunch and the entertainment hardware manufacturers have them left over as the next big thing. And, for a long while, the only big thing.

I think the video disc will happen. They’re fun and they provide a new use for the tv as a display device. You may not have noticed, but people have stopped watching tv. This fall was one of the worst programming disasters in years, sending networks and advertisers into abject panic. The American people are no longer interested in whatever it was they’ve enjoyed for the past five years. No more kung fu, and please, no planet of the apes.

Manufacturer’s Pitch for new tv’s this spring is that they make great digital clocks. Video discs will make them a fine place to play programs you’re interested in.

Future toys aren’t big business anymore. The consumer should welcome the cessation of integrated one-upsmanship. Hopefully the rest of this century will concentrate on the perfection of present technics and their dissemination to the people:

Color TV: Sony’s Trinitron is best. American manufacturers are now offering digital tv’s which display time and channel selected. By 1977, tvs should give you time, temperature, and most often used phone numbers at the push of a button.

Digital Clocks: A new way to tell present time with no visual reference to past or future time. To use them effectively, replace all the clocks in your house with digitals. Prices start at $30. Digital Watches: Prices are already falling. The chip that runs the clock costs about $12 to make. The $150 and up prices are out of line. The cases are ugly. Wait until Timex comes out with theirs. Buy LED rather than liquid crystal displays as you need external light to rbad a liquid crystal display.

Home Computers: Home computer kits capable of storing 65,000 bits of information are available for under $500. By next year complete home computer systems (keyboard, computer, storage, and read-out) should be available ready made for $800 to $1000. You can get them for this price in kit form now. Pocket Calculators: Prices start at less than $20. They won’t get cheaper, but their programming will improve with scientific units available soon for under $70. When you buy make sure you get 8 digit display with 16 digit capacity, rechargeable or standard sized replaceable batteries, legible display, and keyboard that proves a sure touchbase for your fingers.

Quadrophonic Sound: Too expensive, not absolutely dependable, too many ‘systems.’ Who needs it. Stick with stereo. *

TV Projectors: Sony’s Video Projection System ($3,045) and Advent’s Videobeam (approx. $2700) are on the market. Others will follow. Price should be near $1500 by 1977. These units are wonderful, when you see one you’ll want one.

Video: Video cassettes, cartridges, and half-inch open reel systems have been standardized by the Japanese. Color cameras and color recorders are available. If you want to make your own tv onrecord programs off the air, video will do it. Costs run from $1,200 up. Video Discs: Expected from RCA and MCA-Philips within two years. Prices should be $750 to $500 for player, i>5 to $15 for discs.