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I'm not sure what you're getting at. Smartphones are pretty darn useful. I use mine to watch videos, listen to music, browse the web, do network diagnostics, t

I'm not sure what you're getting at. Smartphones are pretty darn useful. I use mine to watch videos, listen to music, browse the web, do network diagnostics, track my gym workouts, read my mail. I rarely actually use it as a phone, it's more of a very portable computer. For social media, we're on sort of a social media right now. We're talking. That's social. AI is pretty neat. I like the picture generation, it's fun to play with, and I don't see it going away.

ben_w 3y ago
When it was written, people were genuinely impressed by digital watches, too.
- dale_glass 3y ago
  Digital watches are still cool, they just lost relevance because we have clocks everywhere, so having one is mostly redundant. But otherwise, what's not to like? A simple, cheap, precise, extremely reliable tool that does one job, and does it excellently well. Even a cheap one has a much superior precision to the best mechanical watches ever made. The modern digital watch is pretty much perfect. If you go for something that's not the cheapest model, you can get one that will run on solar power and sync by radio, making it essentially work perfectly forever without maintenance or adjustment.
  - ben_w 3y ago
    It sounds like you're taking the wrong direction with this; did you ever experience any of the H2G2 media? It — the whole thing not just that quote — takes the pedestal out from underneath all the cultural icons and institutions which we put on pedestals in the first place as reasons to think ourselves amazing. Watches were mocked precisely because they were a cultural symbol; I think the things I listed would also be. Likewise a character naming themselves after a car due to minimal research when trying to blend in with the natives: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Prefect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Prefect
    - dale_glass 3y ago
      > It sounds like you're taking the wrong direction with this; did you ever experience any of the H2G2 media? No. But just because a well regarded book said something doesn't mean I have to agree with it. > Watches were mocked precisely because they were a cultural symbol; I think the things I listed would also be. I genuinely find nothing to mock in the digital watch. I think it's a great example of human achievement, and basically the pinnacle of the function it performs. Timekeeping has been a problem for humanity through the ages, and we finally solved it for good decades ago and then made it dirt cheap. If you showed one to the smartest people of the ancient past, their mind would be blown at the amount of polished tech from multiple branches we can put on a wrist and have it work perfectly almost forever.

ben_w 3y ago

When it was written, people were genuinely impressed by digital watches, too.

dale_glass 3y ago
Digital watches are still cool, they just lost relevance because we have clocks everywhere, so having one is mostly redundant. But otherwise, what's not to like? A simple, cheap, precise, extremely reliable tool that does one job, and does it excellently well. Even a cheap one has a much superior precision to the best mechanical watches ever made. The modern digital watch is pretty much perfect. If you go for something that's not the cheapest model, you can get one that will run on solar power and sync by radio, making it essentially work perfectly forever without maintenance or adjustment.
- ben_w 3y ago
  It sounds like you're taking the wrong direction with this; did you ever experience any of the H2G2 media? It — the whole thing not just that quote — takes the pedestal out from underneath all the cultural icons and institutions which we put on pedestals in the first place as reasons to think ourselves amazing. Watches were mocked precisely because they were a cultural symbol; I think the things I listed would also be. Likewise a character naming themselves after a car due to minimal research when trying to blend in with the natives: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Prefect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Prefect
  - dale_glass 3y ago
    > It sounds like you're taking the wrong direction with this; did you ever experience any of the H2G2 media? No. But just because a well regarded book said something doesn't mean I have to agree with it. > Watches were mocked precisely because they were a cultural symbol; I think the things I listed would also be. I genuinely find nothing to mock in the digital watch. I think it's a great example of human achievement, and basically the pinnacle of the function it performs. Timekeeping has been a problem for humanity through the ages, and we finally solved it for good decades ago and then made it dirt cheap. If you showed one to the smartest people of the ancient past, their mind would be blown at the amount of polished tech from multiple branches we can put on a wrist and have it work perfectly almost forever.