Palm-Power

It occurred to me the other day while we were driving over them the hill, i live in silicon valley, we, my wife and I, were going to a location we had never been to so we were using the GPS to get turn by turn directions, so in the background the GPS is giving us the directions we needed to arrive at our destination and we were listening to music playing, from both of our favorite soundtrack playlist, as we drove I was deep in a chat conference room having a conversation with a group of people from work, and I hear a strange message come from my phone that we had just exceeded the speed limit. My phone had snitched on my other half, it reported that she was violating the speed limit. Not only did it tell me how fast she was going but it told me what the posted legal speed limit was. Remember now all of this is happening on my little handheld iPhone. Let me repeat that for you I am in a chat room talking to coworkers while listening to music in the background while getting directions from our GPS navigator who is not only giving us directions but is also keeping track of her speed to make sure she doesn't break the law and get a ticket. Now who would've thought that the mobile phones from yesteryear would have the kind of power that they have today? When I pick up my iPhone I'm not just holding a phone, I'm holding a camera, I'm holding a video camera, I'm holding a GPS navigator, a DVD player, an MP3 player, I'm holding a library of books as well as any number of video games, text messages, social media programs that allow me to find and connect with friends that I haven't seen or heard from since high school, a host of movies and television shows and the answer to any question i could ever ask. Honestly for every single application that I name here I'm sure there's five more being developed I can't even imagine, who would've ever thought that I can carry around my mobile laptop on my phone and it would copy everything of importance from my phone to my laptop to my iPad to every system I have, that I can send a message or information from my iPhone and send that information that text file that PowerPoint straight to my better half's phone with the push of a button. Our calendars and reminder list and notepads are even connected so that if she needs to leave me a message or if she needs to check my schedule they're available for her and when I need to make an appointment I can check my calendar program and make sure that she's going to be available for both of us to be there. Now how would that technology have been viewed 10 years ago, a hundred years ago? It would've seemed like more than magic know if we couldn't have seen this coming how can we come close to predicting what's going to come next. Frankly the things that I see coming down the pipeline right now seem pretty close to magical I can't imagine what things are going to be like in 10 years. What with virtual reality, augmented reality, telepresence drones, I mean they have a device that plugs into your USB port which allows you to control your system with movements of your hand. And we haven't even gotten into the use of nano materials, genetic material, and everything that comes with quantum mechanics. honestly my main concern is power, rarely in the past have we used power responsibly. Already sadly we're seeing people die because of text messages and using their data devices in dangerous times, are we ready for the power that we've already unleashed much less the power that is coming, I can only hope so, well at least I can hope that we can adapt fast enough because whether we like it or not the genie is out of the bottle and the technology is here to stay and it is going to continue to grow and advance because curiosity will always drive us on to discover that next step, that next rung on the ladder. The only other option is to fall into a dark age and frankly that's not a direction I really want to go.