A 1960s glimpse of our wired world

I think that it's very important to realize that communication is a general function. The wires that will carry telephony will also carry teletypewriter, and a circuit that's capable of handling television will handle high-speed data and many other things as well. So that once you have the transmission facilities available, they can be used for everything interchangeably.

John Pierce, in interview by Walter Cronkite, Jan. 29, 1967, quoted in Jon Gertner, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (New York: Penguin, 2012), p. 226

Never heard of John Pierce? See this obituary.