On comparing new technology to old (to anchor improvements)

๐Ÿ’Ž On comparing new technology to old (to anchor improvements)

The long-distance telegraph began with a portentโ€”Samuel F. B. Morse, standing in the chambers of the US Supreme Court on May 24,1844, wiring his assistant Alfred Vail in Baltimore a verse from the Old Testament: โ€œWHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT.โ€ The first thing we ask of any new connection is how it began, and from that origin canโ€™t help trying to augur its future.

The first telephone call in history, made by Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant on March 10, 1876, began with a bit of a paradox. โ€œMr. Watson, come here; I want to see youโ€โ€”a simultaneous testament to its ability and inability to overcome physical distance.

The cell phone began with a boastโ€”Motorolaโ€™s Martin Cooper walking down Sixth Avenue on April 3, 1973, as Manhattan pedestrians gawked, calling his rival Joel Engel at AT&T: โ€œJoel, Iโ€™m calling you from a cellular phone. A real cellular phone: a handheld, portable, real, cellular phone.โ€

Excerpt from: Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths

HT: @rshotton

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