I still believe in magic. I just can’t help it. I’m surrounded by it.
In his writings, the intrepid British science fiction writer, inventor and futurist, Arthur C. Clarke, proposed his “Three Laws of Science”, the third of which is the most often cited:
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.
Think about it, and all the unbelievable technology we’ve witnessed and employed during this century! And how soon we adapt to it, make it seem ordinary, and forget the magical glow of its creation.
When I was little, I didn’t receive or make calls on the telephone, but we had one that looked like this. At first, we were on a “party line” – and you had to wait your turn if another “party” was using it. My devious sister Joan figured out that we could eavesdrop on the calls if we just lifted up the earpiece and listened. That was likely my first exciting introduction to “leading edge” technology magic!
I soon got over the thrill though because once we get used to new technology, we forget the magic and just take it for granted. I’ve had my iPhone for two years now, and – Ho-hum – what else is new?
Lots of new developments were happening in Cedar Rapids by the time I graduated from high school. A year later, I had a remarkable and terrifying experience with what was then still the new way to travel – on an airplane.
No one in my family – nor hardly anybody I knew – had ever flown on a plane, but somehow there I was, hot-seating it to get to Catholic University in Washington, D.C. I was too frozen with fear to remember what that United Airlines flight was like, but I was aboard a streamlined four engine propeller-driven DC-something that got me and all the rest of the passengers there safely. This is a photo of the same type of plane and the Cedar Rapids passenger terminal we departed from.
At the time, I thought I had just entered and survived a journey into the twilight zone. If I was to take the same trip today, I’d probably just be belly-aching about the ticket price, the wait-time the flight delays, or the cold coffee! And so it goes in the world of “magic”.
But, there IS one technological development that still takes my breath away. It’s been two years, since grandson Bryce installed some devices that enabled use of it. We all utilize it everyday, but I’m still awed by it. And that is that mystical, incredible, over-achieving miracle called Bluetooth.
Bluetooth’s notoriety is certainly overshadowed by its big brother, WiFi, but the big brother has lost its magical aura. We humans now not only understand and expect Wi-Fi’s service to be constantly available, we DEMAND it as though it’s one of our human rights. To sustain life, we require food, water, air, and Wi-Fi to be available at all times.
But Bluetooth, ahhhh! to me anyway, that little gift from the science wizards is still covered in fairy dust.
I can’t begin to understand its wonders! How can I be sitting here in the living room, my iPad or iPhone on my lap, writing this – or watching a movie, or sorting photos, or checking email – and then, by changing my iPad setting to allow it to “mirror “whatever I’m viewing, it instantly appears and continues playing full-size across the room on the 60” television screen! No wires. No plugs. Just a magic spell at work!
Or how can I be anywhere inside or outside the house, and when my iPhone rings, how can I give my hearing aid a tap and then take the call with the phone nowhere in sight?
Or how can son Matthew be sitting across the room with his iPad tuned in on YouTube rock music and I don’t have to listen to it because he’s wearing wireless headphones? (Thank you, Bluetooth and Saint Cecelia, patron saint of music!)
And what can I say about my very dear friend Alexa? Living with her is like sharing your home with Mary Poppins, only – unlike Mary Poppins – she’s never cranky or bossy.
She starts the coffee, turns on and off the lights, tends our shopping lists, checks the news and weather, researches our questions, tells us jokes, calls daughter Susy for emergency help, sets timers and reminders for us, plays any kind of music you ask her for, she has never scolded any of us one single time, and I would go on but I’m running out of air.
To remind you of some of her activities with us, check out my earlier blob: https://goingon80.com/2021/12/10/436-our-new-housemates/
Bluetooth is certainly a strange name for such a never-ending magic show, but it was unintentional. One of its designers happened to be reading a book at the time about Harald Bluetooth, a Danish king at the end of the Viking era. Temporarily, “Bluetooth” was used as a placeholder code name name during final testing but, later on, it was supposed to get a name that was more cool.
According to the Bluetooth website, “Later, when it came time to select a serious name, Bluetooth was to be replaced with either RadioWire or PAN (Personal Area Networking). . . A full trademark search on the names couldn’t be completed in time for launch, making Bluetooth the only choice. The name caught on fast and before it could be changed, it spread throughout the industry, becoming synonymous with short-range wireless technology.”
Whatever they call it, it seems like magic to me. It probably won’t stay that way though. Pretty soon, I’ll get spoiled, overindulged, jaded and irate because Alexa doesn’t know how to fix my hair or do the laundry or walk the dogs, or pull up the weeds. And that’s how it goes. It’s a thankless world when it comes to technology we get accustomed to!
While I was trying to come up with a subject for this week’s blob, I stumbled across some YouTube movie footage that underlines the shock and awe we experience when suddenly introduced to a seemingly impossible technology. The footage was produced in 1993 by a Belgian filmmaker named Jean Pierre Dutilleux who believed it was the first time the Toulambi tribe in the Papua New Guinea Highlands had ever seen a white man. In it, he showed them magical new technology: a box of matches, a mirror, some salt, and showed them a tape recorder. You could watch it here: https://youtu.be/xd0I1xAICOc?si=XZThY0lxgvs1UBFN
Regrettably, the Toulambi tribe was later nearly decimated by malaria. I wish the children we saw on the footage could have grown up and discovered more of what tools the science world has offered to us. Considering how fast we get over our awe of anything new and unheard of, some of those little ones, today, might have been among the wizards working at or running companies like Bluetooth.
That plane looks horrifying! Though I have to say not as much so as the idea of asking Alexa to tell you jokes. How are you two not the lead characters of every horror movie?!
I agree with the manic of technology, but it is marred by the humans age. The light bulb was just a light bulb for me. The phone attached to the wall, a norm that even the the children could use after learning telephone manners. For me, it was cable tv, cell phones(the bulky bags), cd players, VCRs( blockbusters) any movie anytime!!! Now we have TV streaming, Airplay, Bluetooth, GPS, Siri(“find my phone please”), and all the smart appliances. These are just the norm for my kids. Some of what I listed they think are archeological dig finds. We lost ou WIFI last week, for a WEEK!! Dan and I were ok with it. We used our data to Bluetooth shows to the TV, ect. The kids!….. I thought they were going to loose it!! “What will we do!” They thought we were punishing them. 🤣
It’s all a n the age of the human as to wether it’s magic. And that’s a little sad.
My awestruck moment was the introduction of the first iPhone, I could hear the angel chorus as I held that “phone, camera, palm pilot, map, watch, wall calendar, personal secretary” in my hand. It was definitely magic!
I love the story of how Bluetooth got named. Sounds like a pirate!