Really? Slashdot is usually pretty well focused on science. Perhaps a poll done in a scientific manner would be good. For examples, refer to any of these polls which will give a sample size, the questions, demographics, and a description of the process used to survey. Real Clear Politics aggregates various polls: http://www.realclearpolitics.c... and Pew Research: http://www.pewresearch.org/ conducts many polls, then details the results.

Not really, there could be technology to support this in 1983. I wonder if there are any supporting documents to go with the article. A user manual would be good.

Agreed, there are not enough details in the article and it's a prototype. It's just a guess but thinking of the Apple IIC at home, I'm guessing this was not a working model but rather a design idea.