>I have a magical device in my pocket that can summon a car on demand.
As a gadget lover, it seems magical to me too, especially since I was once lusting over things like a ZX Spectrum. But in the big picture, is it really life changing technology? You could do sort of the same thing already in 1970 with a stationary phone and a cab service (and in 1995 with a mobile phone). Not sure in the US, but where I live I used a cab service all the time ever since the eighties -- it took around 10 mins after the phone to get to you, so not totally unlike calling it with an iPhone.
Same for not getting lost. GPS is nice and all, but was getting lost much of an everyday problem in the first place (for regular people of course, not trekkers etc). Maybe for tourists, but I remember the first 3-4 times I visited the states, where I did two huge roadtrips with McNally road maps, and I didn't have much of an issue (compared to later times, when I used an iPhone + Navigon). I got lost a few times, but that was it, I could always ask at a gas station, or try to find where I was on the map and get on the exit towards the right direction.
I'd go as far as to say that even the 2 biggest changes resulting from the internet age, fast worldwide communications and e-commerce haven't really changed the world either.
Some industries died and some thrived -- as it happens --, and we got more gadgets, but nothing as life-changing as when typography or toilets or electricity or cars or even TV was developed (things that brought mass changes in how people lived, consumed, how states functioned, in urbanization and in societal norms, in mores, etc., heck even in nation-building --e.g. see Benedict Anderson on the role of typography on the emergence of nation states).
What I want to say (and this is a different discussion than the original about limits to computing power over time, etc.) is that technology also has some kind of marginal returns. Having a PC in our office/home was important and enabled lots of things. Having a PC in our pocket a few more things (almost all because of the addition of mobility). Having a PC in our watch? Even less (we already had PC+mobility solution).
>Have a good evening, and thanks for the enjoyable conversations. You and coldtea both do really cool work.
Thanks, but don't let our counter comments turn you off! They way I see it is we're painting different pictures of the same thing (based on our individual experiences and observations), and those reading it can decide or compose them into a fuller picture.
As a gadget lover, it seems magical to me too, especially since I was once lusting over things like a ZX Spectrum. But in the big picture, is it really life changing technology? You could do sort of the same thing already in 1970 with a stationary phone and a cab service (and in 1995 with a mobile phone). Not sure in the US, but where I live I used a cab service all the time ever since the eighties -- it took around 10 mins after the phone to get to you, so not totally unlike calling it with an iPhone.
Same for not getting lost. GPS is nice and all, but was getting lost much of an everyday problem in the first place (for regular people of course, not trekkers etc). Maybe for tourists, but I remember the first 3-4 times I visited the states, where I did two huge roadtrips with McNally road maps, and I didn't have much of an issue (compared to later times, when I used an iPhone + Navigon). I got lost a few times, but that was it, I could always ask at a gas station, or try to find where I was on the map and get on the exit towards the right direction.
I'd go as far as to say that even the 2 biggest changes resulting from the internet age, fast worldwide communications and e-commerce haven't really changed the world either.
Some industries died and some thrived -- as it happens --, and we got more gadgets, but nothing as life-changing as when typography or toilets or electricity or cars or even TV was developed (things that brought mass changes in how people lived, consumed, how states functioned, in urbanization and in societal norms, in mores, etc., heck even in nation-building --e.g. see Benedict Anderson on the role of typography on the emergence of nation states).
What I want to say (and this is a different discussion than the original about limits to computing power over time, etc.) is that technology also has some kind of marginal returns. Having a PC in our office/home was important and enabled lots of things. Having a PC in our pocket a few more things (almost all because of the addition of mobility). Having a PC in our watch? Even less (we already had PC+mobility solution).
>Have a good evening, and thanks for the enjoyable conversations. You and coldtea both do really cool work.
Thanks, but don't let our counter comments turn you off! They way I see it is we're painting different pictures of the same thing (based on our individual experiences and observations), and those reading it can decide or compose them into a fuller picture.