Changes

 I just got a new iPhone.  If things seem a bit different it’s because they are.  I’m getting acquainted with my new phone and I’ve typed all my blog posts on my phone.  My fonts are smaller and you’ll have to bear with me if you see typos in my posts.  I’ll get used to it all, but I’m learning how it all works. 

 I love going back in time to see what futurists back in the 50’s and 60’s thought life would be like in the 21st century.  But back then futurists had so much technology in our lives that what they couldn’t envision was a hand held device that did everything they envisioned—wirelessly.  But they just couldn’t see a phone of the future that did it all.  

I woke up this morning and my phone told me all about the weather.  Back in the day, futurists thought every home would have its own weather monitoring system.  And the homeowner would walk over to a panel that get the weather information from the home’s weather station.  Our phone not only gives us weather info, but we now get weather alerts from the local stations on our phones.  But that is just one thing a phone does that futurists back then couldn’t envision.  

Another thing they didn’t see coming was FaceTime.  They had monitors connected to a landline and phone calls were still made through land line phones.  They had no idea about WiFi.  We don’t have to go to a monitor connected by land lines.  No one back then  couldn’t have seen that coming.  No one thought back then that most everything could be done wirelessly by a hand held device.  They had shopping done by a computer, but again it was with a land line phone.  No one back then knew Amazon would exist that tells you when your package is at the door.  

They got home delivery of groceries right, but how things were ordered were by a land line phone.  Everything was computerized, but things got done through a control panel in every home.  They couldn’t have seen Alexa controlling lights in a home.  They had us talking to a home computer.  They had no idea that a conversation could lead to an automatic order of something we had no idea was being ordered.  

They had voice commands once again to a central computer.  There is nothing they envisioned back then that our phones do today.  In some ways they got it right, but they couldn’t see a phone being able to do all that stuff wirelessly.  And instead of everyone using the central computer in our home, everyone now in the household has their own hand held device that does it all wirelessly.  Some couples text more than they talk.  No need for wired intercoms in homes.  If my wife wants me from the patio, sometimes she’ll text me or on a rare occasion call me.  

There is just so much today that futurists then couldn’t have seen coming.  I love to watch these nostalgic old videos from the 50’s and 60’s to see how much they got right.  They got some things right, but the how is all wrong.  But that’s why I like smoking a pipe.  While pipe making is still an art, many pipes today are all made by machines.  But the tobacco hasn’t changed and a pipe is still a pipe.  Today it is my Stanwell pipe with my Cater Hall.  My coffee this morning is Amazon basics.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave