Heh. It's pretty surreal, obviously, but I can understand how rumors like this get started -- because when you think about it for a second, mobile phones (and phones in general) are actually an incredibly creepy technology. I mean, you hold this device to your head and a teleported voice from across the world talks to you? What's up with that? As Erik Davis pointed out in a 1999 article, the history of telecommunications has been shot through with physic supernaturality:
Posted by Clive Thompson at July 21, 2004 12:15 PM
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Yehiya Ayyash ("the Engineer") was killed when Shin Bet added an explosive to his cell phone and then called him.
Posted by: Jeff Liu at July 21, 2004 2:04 PM
Posted by: Clive at July 21, 2004 2:48 PM
The Alquida is using the exact method to kill the us marines!
Posted by: Joe at July 21, 2004 2:53 PM
Yes, true -- bombs triggered by mobile phones are pretty common in Iraq now.
Posted by: Clive at July 21, 2004 3:17 PM
Hee hee, I also thought of The Ring when I read about this.
Posted by: june at July 21, 2004 3:25 PM
Man, that movie freaked me out.
Posted by: Clive at July 21, 2004 5:16 PM
What freaks me out is that most of the things we think or share with others are not any more on paper.
What will remain? Ever found the letters your grandparents wrote each other when they started to "go out together"? My grandchildren will never get anything like that...
Posted by: Mario at July 22, 2004 5:15 AM
On the other hand, maybe we'll have someone hand us a DVD with all 45,000 emails our grandfather sent during his entire life.
Posted by: Clive at July 22, 2004 6:13 AM
Clive,
Your last comment regarding the inheritance of data touches on something I've been mulling over for some time now.
Much like the rest of North America, especially in light of Monday's announcement from Apple, it would appear as though I too suffer from a grievous case of Ipod envy. My thoughts of late have become consumed with concocting some sort of elaborate plan to justify acquiring one. I'm not talking about any of that 10GB business either, it's gotta be the full 40GB or nothing.A small beneficial offshoot of my insatiable desire is the time I've taken mentally designing a thorough and comprehensive database to catalog my music collection, as it's rather extensive. One field that I've concluded demands inclusion into such a DB is a context field of some sort, by which I mean an area to add notes about each track and/or album, such as when it was purchased, what was the reason behind it, does it hold any special meaning, etc., etc.,. My theory is that music says a lot about people, a fact I'm sure few will contest, but so many of the delicious stories we affiliate to different songs or albums are forever locked in our craniums. If we're now capable of storing upwards of 10000 tracks on a device no larger than a pack of cards, then theoretically, (should we all be so fortunate to live a long and fruitful life), we outta be able to store 100000 tracks on something the size of a sugar cube by the time we croak. This leads me to my next major revelation pertaining to my elaborate and comprehensive Ipod database. In a digital age, should we be able to continue upgrading our media to each new standard as they emerge (IE - MP3 > Ogg Vorbis), then we could very well be the first generation capable of entrusting our media to future generations in a highly queryable format. How amazing is it to think that future generations could know that their grandfathers virginity was lost to a woman who insisted on playing Stevie Nicks, "White Wing Dove"? Not that such a thing ever happened to me.
Really.
I swear...
I'll take one Ipod to go,
-brian.
Posted by: brian corcoran at July 22, 2004 10:09 AM
Posted by: Clive at July 22, 2004 11:12 AM
Yehiya Ayyash ("the Engineer") was killed when Shin Bet added an explosive to his cell phone and then called him.
Posted by: Jeff Liu at July 21, 2004 2:04 PM
Whoa. That's messed up.
Posted by: Clive at July 21, 2004 2:48 PM
The Alquida is using the exact method to kill the us marines!
Posted by: Joe at July 21, 2004 2:53 PM
Yes, true -- bombs triggered by mobile phones are pretty common in Iraq now.
Posted by: Clive at July 21, 2004 3:17 PM
Hee hee, I also thought of The Ring when I read about this.
Posted by: june at July 21, 2004 3:25 PM
Man, that movie freaked me out.
Posted by: Clive at July 21, 2004 5:16 PM
What freaks me out is that most of the things we think or share with others are not any more on paper.
What will remain? Ever found the letters your grandparents wrote each other when they started to "go out together"? My grandchildren will never get anything like that...
Posted by: Mario at July 22, 2004 5:15 AM
On the other hand, maybe we'll have someone hand us a DVD with all 45,000 emails our grandfather sent during his entire life.
Posted by: Clive at July 22, 2004 6:13 AM
Clive,
Your last comment regarding the inheritance of data touches on something I've been mulling over for some time now.
Much like the rest of North America, especially in light of Monday's announcement from Apple, it would appear as though I too suffer from a grievous case of Ipod envy. My thoughts of late have become consumed with concocting some sort of elaborate plan to justify acquiring one. I'm not talking about any of that 10GB business either, it's gotta be the full 40GB or nothing.A small beneficial offshoot of my insatiable desire is the time I've taken mentally designing a thorough and comprehensive database to catalog my music collection, as it's rather extensive. One field that I've concluded demands inclusion into such a DB is a context field of some sort, by which I mean an area to add notes about each track and/or album, such as when it was purchased, what was the reason behind it, does it hold any special meaning, etc., etc.,. My theory is that music says a lot about people, a fact I'm sure few will contest, but so many of the delicious stories we affiliate to different songs or albums are forever locked in our craniums. If we're now capable of storing upwards of 10000 tracks on a device no larger than a pack of cards, then theoretically, (should we all be so fortunate to live a long and fruitful life), we outta be able to store 100000 tracks on something the size of a sugar cube by the time we croak. This leads me to my next major revelation pertaining to my elaborate and comprehensive Ipod database. In a digital age, should we be able to continue upgrading our media to each new standard as they emerge (IE - MP3 > Ogg Vorbis), then we could very well be the first generation capable of entrusting our media to future generations in a highly queryable format. How amazing is it to think that future generations could know that their grandfathers virginity was lost to a woman who insisted on playing Stevie Nicks, "White Wing Dove"? Not that such a thing ever happened to me.
Really.
I swear...
I'll take one Ipod to go,
-brian.
Posted by: brian corcoran at July 22, 2004 10:09 AM
Amazing stuff, Brian -- I, too, have been musing on the social effects of what happens when we have so much storage space that we no longer need to delete or forget anything. (I actually wrote about it, tangentially, for the New York Times Magazine a while back.) You're right: The new marketing of the Ipod is dead-center in this trend.
Posted by: Clive at July 22, 2004 11:12 AM