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| Flagstaff. (Well, the mountains above Flag.) Taken on my Pixel 9 Pro. |
The supercomputer in my pocket:
- Internet
- Phone / chat with anyone anywhere
- Global video chat
- Calculator / spreadsheet
- Voice recognition for everything
- Voice recorder / tape recorder
- Word processor / notepad
- Watch / stopwatch / timer / alarm clock
- Calendar (including alerts)
- GPS & compass & maps & local guide (never get lost)
- Location tracker & ability to share location
- Personal weather station / meteorologist for anywhere in the world
- Arcade (OK, I don't have any games on mine) (never get bored)
- Pretty much all of human knowledge and a way to summarize it (beyond the imagination of, say, Bill Clinton when he was President) (Really, can how crazy this is be overstated?)
- Flashlight
- Personal assistant
- Pretty much any song I'd ever want
- Global radio
- Podcasts
- TV & DVR
- TV / countless movies and TV shows
- Countless books (including resources from many library systems)
- Countless magazines
- Document scanner with
- Incredible camera
- Photoshop / "AI" image manipulation
- Videoconferencing
- Video camera
- Video production
- Song recognition
- Audio processing / music creation
- Banking & investments (including check deposit)
- Any of my credit cards (that I want to have on there)
- Boarding passes
- Visas
- Keys
- Remote controls
- Personal taxi service
- Fitbit / AllTrails
- Mirror
- Thermometer
- Medical information and advice (including meeting with Nurse Practitioner)
- Fix-it videos for anything
- Latest news from your "friends"
- A community that shares any interest (e.g., Reddit)
- A global shopping mall (I ordered an excellent and inexpensive carbon-fiber case for this phone from overseas, and it was here in a week) (Really, can how crazy this is be overstated?)
- Imperfect but near-universal translator of text, scans / photos, audio / conversations, and video
When I was in high school, I was limited to whatever was on one of the three TV channels at the moment, at the movie theater at that moment, what records I owned or songs were on the radio, and what books I could borrow from my cow-town's library. If I wanted any information, I had to go to that small library and hope.
I had a cheap plastic camera for which I would have to buy film and pay for processing. Our family of five had one phone; calling anyone outside of our little town cost a lot of money. Depositing money involved going to a bank when they were open; investing was a savings account; loans were whatever they would give you. Shopping involved driving to KMart or Kroger.
No GPS, no maps outside of a huge paper atlas, no weather forecast outside the evening news (and then it was not accurate compared to today). Certainly no weather info for other locations.
I could go on. This would have been literally unbelievable to Young Matt. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” indeed.
And yet, nearly everyone takes nearly all of this for granted. Our lives are negatively impacted (not wrongly) by constant access to bad news and "social" media, but not positively impacted by the miracles all around us.
I am not saying, "Everyone is stupid except me." This is just a note on how natural selection has programmed our brains. We live on the hedonic treadmill, where we acclimate to anything good and always always always want more.
Our genes very much don't want [sic] us to be happy. Our brains want to pursue happiness but never achieve it for more than a fleeting moment. Our family doesn't want us to be happy. Society doesn't want us to be happy.
I hope this blog can help provide some perspective and help you achieve at least some happiness.
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