Already ten years ago I was astounded by the number of phone stores in town. Downtown here at that point no longer had a single video store, but maybe a dozen phone stores.
And it has only escalated. I don't think anybody but Ray Bradbury had predicted a world were everybody permanently has a phone/media-device glued to them. It's odd.
Update:
Neeraj pointed to:
The Joymaker is a fictional device invented by Frederik Pohl for the novel The Age of the Pussyfoot, first published in 1965. It bears a remarkable resemblance to devices in common use in the years following the start of the 21st century.
The remote-access computer transponder called the "joymaker" is your most valuable single possession in your new life. If you can imagine a combination of telephone, credit card, alarm clock, pocket bar, reference library, and full-time secretary, you will have sketched some of the functions provided by your joymaker. (from the novel.)
OK, so my iPhone can't make drinks yet, and it's a bit dumb for a secretary. But then it costs far, far less than a car, remarkable for something which for many easily could pass for "the most valuable single possession"!
Robert Heinlein, Space Cadet, 2nd page. Character is even polite enough to cut a phone call short because he's in a crowd.
ReplyDeleteThe phones then disappear from the story complete. First because cadets aren't allowed to have them, later because they're in space ships or on (very unpopulated) Venus.
(Heinlein's great at slipping things in. It's not until halfway through Tunnel In The Sky that we find out that the viewpoint character is black.)
Yes, that point has become justifiably famous. He was a sly and humorous ol' devil.
ReplyDeleteAnd he was an excellent Dirty Old Man too. I forget if it was in Time Enough For Love that there were a girl with a shell bikini painted on.
Makes me wonder how things will change in the next 10 years. Will the prices drop until a basic smartphone is something that is bought in any newsagents, department store or whatever, and we see phone stores disappear.
ReplyDelete"... I don't think anybody but Ray Bradbury had predicted a world were everybody permanently has a phone/media-device glued to them."
ReplyDeleteAlso Frederick Pohl has described a device like this, called "Joymaker" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joymaker), in his novel "The Age of the Pussyfoot" (1965) ;-)
(oh, these captchas are really annoying :-( ... that's why I'm commenting very seldom)
Hey, good to hear from you again, Neeraj.
ReplyDeleteSadly it doesn't seem I can get that book as ebook. Except as a $50 bundle at Baen. Reasonable price, I guess, but I.... I'll think about it.
I had a conversation with Pohl! Such a nice guy. It was after the Writers Of The Future event at United Nations in... 1990.
You'll find it here as epub:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.arthursbookshelf.com/sci-fi/pohl/pohl.html
:-)
Dang, I just shelled out fifty bucks.
ReplyDeleteAh heck, I can afford it, and they deserve it.
OMG, how "romatic," huh?! If any one of us was even blessed enough to have a really nice relationship, I sure hope that we would know to turn the damn thing OFF and SAVOR the moment(s) for as LONG it/they lasted!!
ReplyDeleteyes, very "romantic" ... therefore: http://stopphubbing.com/
ReplyDelete:-)
BTW: I have still no smartphone or something like this, just a VERY simple mobile phone (which can ONLY make/receive phone calls or SMS) for emergency cases on the road, or so. In 99,9 % or more of my time it is switched off, because I don't need it ;-)
A technical device (as well as your mind) is or can be a perfect slave, but a terrible master.
(oh, these captchas are really annoying :-( ... that's why I'm commenting very seldom)
ReplyDeleteThank you captchas! Somehow that moron Kent McGarnigal has figured them out, though.