I think the joke is still good, because it's still a bad manner to have your phone ringing and buzzing in many situations (a concert, at the opera etc). I mean, it's actually an impressive comic, it imagines a possible future tech and correctly identifies some real misuses, 70-80 years before it became reality.
I was just in an awkward social situation the other day where someone left their phone on a table at a party and walked away to do something. Some guy was telling an interesting story and we were all trying to politely listen, but suddenly that phone started ringing at full volume. Everyone just kind of ignored it at first but it kept ringing. I was annoyed and wanted to reach over and mute/end the call, but, you don…
“When we all have pocket telephones”
161–170 of 208 posts
Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”
#162> Now, increasingly, cellphones are * day-to-day life* . Far from the literal “pocket telephones” envisioned a century ago, they’ve worked their way into nearly every aspect of human existence, including those Haselden could never have considered. It is now essential to be considered part of the society, to the point that someone who does not want to or cannot carry a cell phone is sneered at. Anecdotally, I was in t…
Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”
#163They are now banning cellphones in schools in Nordic countries. But alas, parents are buying standalone smartwatches for their precious brats. Which reminds me of me in 1950s. I always tried to get seat by the window where the heat pipes run. My crystal set needed ground wire and the antenna could be hidden by the curtains.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02727...
> In Sweden, we find no impact of mobile phone bans on student performance and can reject even small-sized gains.
Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”
#164When we all have telephones embedded into our brains, linked in to our neural circuitry. When Google advertises to you in your dreams, daydreams and nightmares. When Huawei gives their government control over their citizens' thoughts, and feelings and desires. When Samsung kills millions with a botched over-the-air firmware upgrade.
So this I guess would be the ultimate authoritarian end game, but from my perspective - what's the point. When you've got total control, what then? Like what's the next move... because anything else is just a rounding error to what you've already got.
Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”
#165That comic got one small detail incorrect: in 2022, phones are rarely in pockets, because most people can't stop using theirs long enough to put it in a pocket.
Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yet it predicted the future more accurately than Blade Runner (1982) where people still use pay phones in 2019.
I think it might be an aesthetic choice. Pay phones and perpetual night scenes are more detective-noir than cellphones.
Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Comedians weren't lining up to do college campuses 20 years ago either.
College campus is never the preferred venue however as I said, it’s a money maker. Similar to corporate gigs. The difference is now they’re not worth the trouble. Seinfeld (not even who you think of as “anti-woke”) has a good take on it you could search for. https://ew.com/article/2015/06/08/jerry-seinfeld-politically... >“I don’t play colleges.” Seinfeld says teens and college-aged kids don’t understand what it mean…
Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”
#168> Now, increasingly, cellphones are * day-to-day life* . Far from the literal “pocket telephones” envisioned a century ago, they’ve worked their way into nearly every aspect of human existence, including those Haselden could never have considered. It is now essential to be considered part of the society, to the point that someone who does not want to or cannot carry a cell phone is sneered at. Anecdotally, I was in t…
Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”
#169Just missed it by vibrate-only mode.