About three weeks ago, Samsung revealed a "phone." Which is much like saying that Ferrari introduced a new "radio." The Ferrari from the link is a 900+ total horsepower hybrid with active aerodynamics, twelve cylinders and enough Viagra in the glove box to get the job done for any man who needs this stereo. No article I have found online discusses the musical capability of the prancing pony. Nor does any article I have found discuss the actual ability of the 6.3" screened Galaxy Mega to make a phone call.
From my phone (a comparably diminutive Galaxy Note Series, until the next Note comes out which should be similarly sized) I can live chat face to face across the entire globe in real time. In rare cases this signal may even be bounced off of a satellite. That satellite is higher than the orbit of the USS Enterprise as detailed by Spock in one episode of the original series- 643 miles, 2,021 feet, 2.04 inches above the surface.
I can access the internet. Play games. I plug it into the dash of my car to play music off a 16 GB card the size of my smallest fingernail. We navigate by phone. Check the time and wake up by phone. Take pictures, send electronic telegraphs, record audio/video, create art, watch TV and movies, run our finances, stalk our exes, translate foreign languages, and so much more all at the touch of a button so fast, so reliable that Merlin, Gandalf and that Potter kid have nothing on any of us. Need to know the Elvish word for friend to open the gates to Moria? A simple search on Google brought me the answer (Mellon) as well as a sound clip pronunciation guide. Captain Kirk literally didn't have this technology. Even his PADD lacked the power of an iPad, but I appreciate the Note-like stylus.
Yesterday, I received one call on my cell phone. It lasted 31 seconds, as my massage place confirmed this afternoon's appointment. I made no outgoing calls. I have made and received none today. Sure I used my work land line... for work. But I don't want to call you. We can text or we can talk in person. It is not a mere phone and it has no dial. We had a phone with a dial when I was a kid. It was a Vintage Brass French style thing, as my mom liked antiques. It weighed as much as a car battery, and was just as easy to pocket. GPS did not exist because the satellite constellation was still a decade off.
This device gives me a host of superpowers that we take for granted. When it becomes a glasses format, and then a pair of contacts the next level will be even more staggering. Is your boyfriend lying? There is an app for that. Counting cards in Vegas? An app for that too. Every answer to every test available to you, every board game mastered, real time instructions on anything you need to know or do, augmented reality over everything. Commercials in your sleep. Cats and dogs living together... (Take out contacts for best REM)
I could predict so much power coming from this technology. Education will have to change to emphasize thinking over fact regurgitation. The inability to understand the beauty and complexity of the technologies around us will drive more people to religion. Some to violence. And you call it a phone.
