[logn]

I'm starting to feel like a grey neckbeard. In my day, when I wanted to hang out with my friends, I called them, from a landline, known simply as "the phone". These days, I'm at or near a desktop/laptop computer almost 24/7 so don't see much need for a smartphone. I dread the day when a smartphone is required to be a part of society. It's shifting in that direction rapidly. If being on Facebook/LinkedIn also becomes a necessity, hopefully I'm already retired and have a beautiful lawn.

[herge]

I always wonder if there were these old fogeys who complained when the first postal services were brought in in the 19th century. Like "Back in my day, I visited my friends and family because I cared, but now any idiot with a stamp can send me an annoying letter."

[tomjen3]

They did about the telephone, though:

>"The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys." -- Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office, 1876.

Radio, planes and xrays:

>"Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax." -- William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, British scientist, 1899.

The grand canyon: >"Ours has been the first, and doubtless to be the last, to visit this profitless locality." -- Lt. Joseph Ives, after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861.

Oil drilling: >"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." -- Workers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

Nuclear energy: >"There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will." -- Albert Einstein, 1932.

The Germ theory: >"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." -- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.

Brain surgery: >The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon." -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

All taken from: http://www.rinkworks.com/said/predictions.shtml

[dragonwriter]

> I always wonder if there were these old fogeys who complained when the first postal services were brought in in the 19th century.

The first postal services were formed long before that; there were definitely some in the late 17th Century, may have been earlier.

[herge]

FWIW, I date it from the issuance of the first really convenient paper postage stamp, much like how OP probably is complaining about smartphones post 2007, as opposed to the first mobile phones in the 70's.

[ma2rten]

Actually the main reason I have a smartphone is for GPS. Imagine a device where you enter the name of a place and it tells you how to go there.

[collyw]

Sure its easier now, but it wasn't that much of a problem before. Just get an A-Z map of the town you are going. When I was travelling I always had a Lonely Planet guide. It had most of the information you would be likely to find with online searches, and organised in a helpful way.

[stox]

The next step will be to embed smart phones in children at birth. I guess "The President's Analyst" was more prescient than we gave it credit for.