Live data from Hacker News

“When we all have pocket telephones”

openculture.com

161–170 of 208 posts

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#161

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 batteries were removable, removing them was the standard way to make unattended, ringing cell-phones stop.

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…

In some ways the smart phone is replacing the car, and I think I'm okay with that. As long as they don't get as expensive as cars.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#163

They 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.

Didn’t know about that ban, but doesn’t seem to go that well…

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”

#164
post #4

When 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.

> When Huawei gives their government control over their citizens' thoughts

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”

#165

That 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.

Also, they didn't foresee that particular style of mustache going heavily out of style in a few short years.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#166
post #5

Earlier 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.

Definitely this. Bladerunner is all about being a future Noir set in Los Angeles where it is perpetually night and often raining. Surely they knew when filming it or it being written that LA is extremely sunny and never rains.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#167
post #81

Earlier 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…

Most of the people on a college campus will not even know who Seinfeld is or identify with his jokes at all - he's probably older than their parents. I'm sure there are plenty of younger comedians killing it on campus

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…

What, they wanted you to install some app for a haircut?

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#170
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to me that the Bluetooth speaker is really just the reincarnation of the boombox.

To which the Vulcan nerve pinch may still be the solution.

For todays utes:

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=prH9RyFX4SM>

Post reply on HN