The modern cell phone is as ubiquitous as its unending robo calls.
It has been light years since the day Thomas Edison said into his new invention the tele-phone, “Watson, come here, I want you”. This was not a plea from someone who just came out of the communications closet. Those words morphed into Can you hear me now? to ‘Can you produce a video on your phone, release it on youtube and get a 100,000 hits before lunch now? Soooo…..are you over-communicated now?
Has your cell phone become a permanent addition to the end of your hand?
We’ve all got cell phones and many times during our day they call out to interrupt us in a way that only an infant with colic and a burr in their diaper can. That’s just for a phone call. If you receive a text, X (Tweet) or any other message an app can bring, they all have different sounds. You instantly know who would like to intrude on your day. It’s a cacophony that disturbs the peace we seek.
In this age of ‘personalization’ you can even choose the type of ‘ring’ you need to hear. Be creative! Of course, the ring is not just for you but everyone within the sound of your device. You want to make a statement about who you are in the world and what’s an easy way to convey that little thought? You choose a ‘ring’ that appeals to your sense of how others see you. The phone is so smart it gives you a number of choices, but none of these are good enough. You want a ‘signature ring’ that forces others to hear your private little reverie. The faux classical melody that gives you a boost is sure to reach out and touch the uninitiated. When it sounds, do you wait until the first movement is over so people within earshot think you’re into the opera thing? Remember, it’s not who you are but who you want others to think you are. Yo folks, we don’t want to hear you tell the caller that you’re at the museum contemplating the works of Gaugin, when you’re really in line at the check-out and then rave about your very obviously important schedule for the rest of the day. If you were really that important, you don’t have time to chat or shop.
With thousands of ‘apps’ covering every aspect of life, anyone may now reach everyone anytime with anything. Of course, if you’re a person who uses your cell phone to only make and receive calls you are in the extreme minority.
You can score a symphony, ‘find’ Pokemon, pit your skills against thousands of others in real time and when someone starts to ‘poke’ ‘tweet’, X, text or bug you, based on today’s proclivity for speed in social media, if you don’t get back to them rightnow, you’re yesterday’s app.
‘Quite frankly, I’m over communicated!’
China has built a processor capable of 93 petaflops or a million billion (one quadrillion!!!) floating point operations per second of sustained performance. That may mean your next smart phone is going to be so smart, so fast and so advanced that even an 11 year old can’t manage the process. That’s scary.
Can you keep up with me now?
