Check out the old fashioned phone above.
When I was 15 in the 1950s we had one in our home in Coronation, Alberta, Canada.
You cranked a lever and that connected you to a local operator and she would connect you to another customer.
We didn’t think it could get any better than that.
We Were Wrong
You probably own one of the 3.5 billion mobile (cell phones) that exist on the planet. You might even own a couple.
Your cell phone and the right apps will link you to about half the population of the world.
You can see the other person on your screen and they can see you. You can exchange video clips, send an instant message, buy a new car or book a ticket around the world–to list only a few of things your mobile phone will do.
Each year, these phones become more powerful and versatile. Right around the corner is virtual reality–pokemon blazes that trail at this instant.
The phone that I knew as a boy has morphed into a magical device that we take for granted.
But in those same 60 years has the human body and the mind it holds improved? Sure, we have added a few years to our life expectancy.
Still few of us have learned to live in peace. Few of us have grown any kinder. As the dominant species, we are destroying our world.
Here is a graph showing the improvement of the phone, one of our greatest machines:
And here’s how we have improved in the last 10,000 years as a species.
What’s your guess?
Who’s going to win between man and machine?
Hint: This was written with a tiny human brain and used machine technology that made it available to half the world on their smart phones.
