Snyder Has No Cell Phone

[Thunder_God]

Israel has the second highest Cell phone per person in the world, right after that country that came up with saunas and Nokia.

When I need to jot down people's numbers into the medical network, there are people with no home-number, there are no people without a cell-phone.

We have about, what, 1.3 cell phones per head?

[contracycle]

Can any of you trendoids explain exactly why you need a mobile phone? Apart from trying to be cool and all that?

Tsk tsk.  Think of it this way, the phone number is your IP address.  It used to be your houses network address, now its yours.  I expect a network address will eventually be issued automatically as soon as a citizen is registered for social security or whatever universal lists there are.

This does have reall utility; one of the most significant reasoinis for takeup is the ability to call the emergency services.  Then there are people who get rescued at sea or from mountains becase they were able to call in their own plight.  Swome contracts specify bthat phones are not insured against damage inflicted by enemies in wartime becuase of the propensity of troops to carry their own mobiles.  More prosaically, there is the calling of cabs by clubbers on the way home and so forth.  Or, booking tickets by phone rather than standing in a queue.  Being able to call people whan arrangements are suddenly cancelled, etc.

This is a genuine case of network externalities, and a variety of the correct context for that argument.  The more phones there are the more benefit you get from your phone, the more services are geared to phones.  The only surprising thing is that the phone manufacturers seem determined to go down a particlar path of more media, TV and so on, whereas what the phone is more likely to become is a universal device that talks to your TV, fridge, light switches, home media server and orders your groceries from the supermarket.

[Matt Wilson]

whereas what the phone is more likely to become is a universal device that talks to your TV, fridge, light switches, home media server and orders your groceries from the supermarket.

I'm sure it'll happen eventually. I saw plans for that kind of stuff when I worked for Motorola.

Carriers are into media right now because it's data transfer using the network, which they can bill for in the same way they can charge 99 cents for a ringtone. Using your phone to talk to your TV is probably a matter of the phone's initial cost and not a recurring expense.

[Sydney Freedberg]

Agreeing with Gareth on the "cell phones go to war" bit:

I just spent a day (Tuesday) at Fort Benning, Georgia, watching Army recruits run through basic and not-so-basic infantry training, and all the drill sergeants seemed to be carrying cellphones along with their walkie-talkies, to better keep in touch as they ran the recruits around in the woods or from one exercise site to another (the mock-up village, the land of pop-up targets, whatever). One drill sergeant went so far as to tell me that his cellphone and his radio are his most powerful weapons.

Plus most of the cops and homeland security officials I deal with rely on their cellphones as their primary means of communication. Some departments are even buying specific brands (won't advertise for them here) whose text-messaging features still work when some kind of natural or unnatural disaster takes down the voice network.

Communications = good.

[Thunder_God]

Soldiers also use cell-phones to stay in touch with home. You have no idea how much money is gained when the recruits call home every night in these parts.

[droog]

So...good for authority and the capitalist economy. Must rush out and buy one.

[Ron Edwards]

Hey wait a minute, Luke, that doesn't count. Spider people were involved.

Best, Ron

[contracycle]

So...good for authority and the capitalist economy. Must rush out and buy one.

Sigh.  You shouldn't be surprised that capitalism pursues advances in technology, nor should you be surprised that these advances have genuine function.  Building and selling for a one-year replacement cycle is indeed typically capitalist, but this does not alter the underlying utility of the universal network.  And in the not too distant future, all connections may have to be encrypted as a necessary part of using virtual private networks, as with Skype.

There is a great deal of commodity fetishisation in the marketing of handsets, granted, but the basic functionality and investment therein should be seen in the same light as that in canals or railways.

[droog]

Oh, I'm not surprised. I doubt that most people are thinking in your terms, however.

I think it's a bit rich to be knocking people for not having one, though, even if it is a joke. Note the 'functionality' described here. Chats on the train, calling taxis, turning on your TV, pursuing frenetic lifestyles, police, war...it's either trivial or authoritarian. Oh dear, I might miss a dinner engagement.

No thanks. And we still don't know if they cause cancer.