'Father of cell phone' talks mobile addiction, hope for the future

[Shawn Knight]

Forward-looking: Martin Cooper, often referred to as the father of the cell phone, had a lot to say about the breakthrough technology in a recent sit-down with AFP. Even 50 years in, Cooper acknowledges that we are just at the beginning of understanding what mobile technology can do.

It's been nearly 50 years since Cooper placed the first public call using a handheld cellular telephone. "Mobile" phones already technically existed, but they were tethered to vehicles. Cooper's idea of a mobile phone was a truly portable device that was not connected to a car and in late 1972, he assembled a team tasked with building just that.

Once complete, he rang Dr. Joel S. Engel, a competitor working at Bell Labs, to inform him of the achievement. "There was silence on the other end of the line," Cooper said. "I think he was gritting his teeth," he added.

The handset Cooper used to call his rival was a DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) that weighed about 2.5 pounds and had a very short battery life. All you could do with it was talk and listen, Cooper said.

Battery life was not a major concern, Cooper joked, because it was so heavy that you couldn't hold it for very long.

These days, the 94-year-old engineer uses an iPhone paired with an Apple Watch to perform ordinary tasks including checking e-mail, looking at pictures and even adjusting his hearing aid, but revealed he will never be as into it as his grandchildren and great-grandchildren are. In fact, he said he is shocked with how obsessed people are with their phones. Simply put, folks spend too much time looking at them and become caught up in them.

"I have to tell you I am devastated when I see somebody crossing the street and looking at their cell phone," Cooper said. It is an all-too-common occurrence, he added, noting that "they are out of their minds."

Smartphones may be used primarily for entertainment these days but eventually, he hopes that society will come around and start using mobile devices more effectively. The visionary firmly believes smartphones have the ability to revolutionize all sorts of industries including education and healthcare.

"I know this sounds like an exaggeration but I want you to know within a generation or two, we are going to conquer disease, eliminate disease."

Image credit: Valerie Macon, AFP

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https://www.techspot.com/news/98144-father-cell-phone-talks-smartphone-addiction-hope-future.html

 

[RudyBob]

"I know this sounds like an exaggeration but I want you to know within a generation or two, we are going to conquer disease, eliminate disease."

Not like he thinks. Scientists have already conquered and eliminated many but never all.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

"I know this sounds like an exaggeration but I want you to know within a generation or two, we are going to conquer disease, eliminate disease."

Not like he thinks. Scientists have already conquered and eliminated many but never all.

It's not worth it monetarily to cure diseases. The profit is in treatments, which is why cancer and other ailments have no cure even though they have been studied for decades. If there was a way to monetize cures in a way that guaranteed continual profits, we'd already have them. Big Pharma would rather you take meds for the rest of your life.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

It's not worth it monetarily to cure diseases. The profit is in treatments, which is why cancer and other ailments have no cure even though they have been studied for decades. If there was a way to monetize cures in a way that guaranteed continual profits, we'd already have them. Big Pharma would rather you take meds for the rest of your life.

And do you have any evidence as to why countries like china, russia, iran, ece would hide such secrets when their heathcare systems are not for profit? Or western europe, for that matter?

 

[toooooot]

And do you have any evidence as to why countries like china, russia, iran, ece would hide such secrets when their heathcare systems are not for profit? Or western Europe, for that matter?

Russian health system is not for profit because it does not exist.

 

[bviktor]

It's not worth it monetarily to cure diseases. The profit is in treatments, which is why cancer and other ailments have no cure even though they have been studied for decades. If there was a way to monetize cures in a way that guaranteed continual profits, we'd already have them. Big Pharma would rather you take meds for the rest of your life.

Now all you need is your tinfoil hat. Put it on.

 

[VitalyT]

Mark my word, mobile phones are here for a very short period of time. Another 10 years or so, and they will be gone. It is a temporary technological restriction that we have to keep staring at tiny screens. Gla$$holes was a solid indication, even though it initially was rejected, but it will return in a new wave, and soon, with much better tech, so you will never need to look at tiny screens no more, the approach that's already on its way out.

 

[Hodor]

"I know this sounds like an exaggeration but I want you to know within a generation or two, we are going to conquer disease, eliminate disease."

Not like he thinks. Scientists have already conquered and eliminated many but never all.

Let me fix the ending of your sentence:
"...eliminated many, but this technology is mostly kept away from general population".

 

[Hodor]

And do you have any evidence as to why countries like china, russia, iran, ece would hide such secrets when their heathcare systems are not for profit? Or western europe, for that matter?

Because the leaderships of the biggest and most influential countries are made of rich powerful psychopaths who think the rest of population don't deserve to have the same things they have.

They don't want to see you in the same restaurants as them, screwing the same underage girls they can do unpunished, having the same yachts, eating the same food, and...... most important...... having the same top medical treatments as them.

Besides, there's too many people on the planet to allow them to be young and healthy for a long time. But having just a few hundreds of people live long (and prosperous) is not a problem.

I'm talking about creme de la creme of the leadership. If anyone in any smaller country decides to develop and spread this tech anyway, the same thing happens to them what happened to Gadaffi or Chavez. Although they were killed for different reasons, but it's the same principle.

This is why you don't hear any of the top level people dying of cancer, but everyone else, including rich (but not powerful) people can die of cancer despite their money. Steve Jobs is a good example. He had access to the same crappy technology as the rest of us, because he was simply not creme de la creme, despite his billions.

 

[RudyBob]

It's not worth it monetarily to cure diseases. The profit is in treatments, which is why cancer and other ailments have no cure even though they have been studied for decades. If there was a way to monetize cures in a way that guaranteed continual profits, we'd already have them. Big Pharma would rather you take meds for the rest of your life.

Big Pharma gets a bad rap and I won't say without cause. I will say big pharma has given me hundreds of thousands of USA retail value medications over many years. I don't think they are being magnanimous or altruistic. I think they do it to decrease their bad rap. Also, insurance has caused the price to be so high.

 

[RudyBob]

Let me fix the ending of your sentence:
"...eliminated many, but this technology is mostly kept away from general population".

You could be right. Truth is kept away from the masses

 

[RudyBob]

It's not worth it monetarily to cure diseases. The profit is in treatments, which is why cancer and other ailments have no cure even though they have been studied for decades. If there was a way to monetize cures in a way that guaranteed continual profits, we'd already have them. Big Pharma would rather you take meds for the rest of your life.

There is a continual supply of people that need curing from cancer. That is the guaranteed continual profit

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Now all you need is your tinfoil hat. Put it on.

Are you crazy!? I never take it off. I don't want to get cancer from the mind-control radio waves the government is shooting into our brains.

 

[Zidentia]

This article is long on hyperbole and short on actual history. While Mr. Cooper may be credited with a battery powered mobile phone he was not the actual inventor of mobile phones. The hardware technology has been available since approximately 1908 and in real time use since the 1920s. Hedy Lamar and George Anthiel created the cellular transmission that modern systems are based on. People were making cellular calls in the early 1940s although they were tethered to a vehicle. It is true having a device that is actually separated from a large or permanent power supply started the next phase of the technology acceptance.

I will agree with Mr. Coopers sentiment about the degree of obsession with it currently.