Thank you Karl (KW4MW)
I do not have all those things, well I have most of them smart phone (droid version) cameras, laptops, calculators, etc. then thrown in the Icom 706 that fits almost anywhere and covers all the bands that I used to have 4 boat anchors for, automatic tuners, my own personal weather station, my own security cameras, the handheld VX-8R (4 bands in a pack of cigs size that does gps , aprs, etc.)… wow! That is almost as good as Dick Tracy’s wrist radio? I suspect that we will see even more changes in the next 50 – well some will, I would like to but not sure I will make another 50 but with the advanced in medicine and science who knows? I am going to try to do my part. – WD0AJG
I am seated here at my desk looking at the array of electronics goodies in front of me.
I have a camera that is less than the size of a pack of cigarettes that will take over 400 12 Megapixel pictures or a 40 minute HD movie.
I have Flip Video camera about the same size that will record 60 minutes of video.
I have a digital voice recorder (for meetings) that will record about 100 hours of audio and it is smaller that a pocket knife.
I’ve a GPS in the car and another GPS for hiking – the second puts me within spitting distance of my location.
I’ve an iPhone that will do all of the above plus make cell calls or access the net through wifi’s and there are so many apps for it that it is absolutely amazing – I’m still learning it’s capabilities.
Calculators – I’ve 4 – 5 around here and take them all for granted.
I’ve got an exercise monitor consisting of a transmitter that straps around my chest and relays my heart rates to a wrist watch receiver which will in turn tell me how long I exercised, my maximum and average heart rates and a fairly accurate estimate of my caloric expenditure.
8 GB memory sticks
And the really amazing thing is that if I had to, I could stuff them all in my pockets at the same time.
Would you have believed these things possible 50 years ago? Even 25?
The only futuristic things on a small scale back in the 50’s and 60’s that I can recall was Dick Tracy’s wrist-watch-two-way-radio. And of course those cigarette pack sized 3 transistor AM radios
The single greatest power in the world today is the power to change . . . .
The most recklessly irresponsible thing we can do in the future is to go on exactly as we have in the past ten or twenty years. Karl W. Deutsch