I remember from my childhood the old Get Smart television show that featured the secret agent and his many gadgets. Little did I know that the idea of a “shoe phone” would eventually become a reality. The Smart Phone of today has gone through many progressions to arrive where it is today and is primed for where it will go next.
McLuhan's four laws of media illustrate this progression in terms of what the new technology enhances and obsoletes, what it rekindles from the past and what it leads to in the future.(Thornburg, 2008). The Smart Phone is just that, it’s smart. It enhances regular PDA and cell phone technology because it integrates a portable telephone with the ability to store and manage large amounts of information. It enhances ones ability to communicate and be productive without being tethered to the office or home. Regular cell phones and PDA’s are obsoleted because the new Smart Phones integrate the features that are unique to the cell phone and PDA and adds access to the internet. All of these functions have taken over the classic job of a secretary. The secretary’s job was to keep her boss organized, scheduled, and in communication with those who needed him. Now, the Smart Phone is like having your own secretary right at your fingertips. Thornburg (2008) characterizes Mcluhan’s idea by indicating that “every technology extends or amplifies some organ or faculty of the user” (p. 2). I believe that smart phone technology will follow this idea. I predict that eventually we will be able to have a chip implanted in us that serves as a receiver. We will be able to use our brain to communicate and retrieve the information that is stored or that we are seeking. Communication and information retrieval systems will be enhanced by becoming an integrated part of our bodies.
The idea of the “shoe phone” seemed so far out when I think back to those days of my childhood. While a phone in a shoe did not ever catch on, the idea did, and it has advanced even further than I would have ever expected. I predict that the Smart Phone technology will continue to transform itself into an even more integrative tool inserted into the body that will become as commonplace as contact lenses or plastic surgery is today.
References
Thornburg, D. D. (2008). Emerging technologies and Mcluhan’s Laws of Media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.
5 comments:
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your Module 2 blog post. Your tetrad for Smart Phones was very similar to mine, and the only differences that I found were semantics. I think that I used more words than necessary; you were much more concise in your descriptions. I can’t wait for the Body Integrated System communication devices of the future!
In your blog, you said, “The secretary’s job was to keep her boss organized, scheduled, and in communication with those who needed him.” Immediately, I noticed that you referred to the secretary as a “her” and the boss as a “him”. Just like technology is changing, so is everything else in our world. Secretaries do not go by that name anymore, and I have had more female bosses than male. Progress is so exciting, isn’t it? A web resource that discusses this topic can be found by clicking on the following link: http://www.studyofwork.com/2011/03/tracking-women’s-workplace-progress—yes-progress-but…/.
What do you think will be the communications technology that follows body integrated devices?
Lewie, you bring up a good point. I was referring to the stereotypical office set up of the past with the male boss and female secretary from the 1950's era. Progress is interesting because now 60 years later, I am a female boss and I have a male administrative assistant. Maybe 60 years from now robots will threaten the job security of humans. Will they be able to outperform humans? Will we have a robot boss? What will the jobs of the future be that will not be threatened by robots? Will humans end up doing the menial labor? Or maybe humans will do the types of work that relates to the affective domain...will robots ever be able to operate from the heart or conscious that is not based upon hard data?
Though quite entertaining and thought provoking, our conversation went a bit off track. Let me take your tetrad to the next level
on my next post. Here is what you proposed:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bAHfcDQwmFc/Tgvahx6hdcI/AAAAAAAAABE/H3GpWii8Ok0/s1600/tetradsmartphone2.jpg
Cathy,
It has become so interesting how our current technologies were once only imaginations within the world of entertainment. Remember the fliphones from Star Trek? I premise that you only have to look to the entertainment world to realize the future technologies.
This transition from Module 2 to 3 using the "From Maps to Apps" title is very interesting. Using an old map to transition to Smart Phone apps show a rhyme that reads like a history of communication history book.
I concur with Mr. Chappelear; your transition from Module 2 to 3 is interesting indeed. What is more interesting is the fact that many individuals depend on GPS navigation apps to assist them in gettng to their destination; yet many of those same individuals may have not been too keen on the concept of utilizing the paper map version.
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