Ross: Our nation’s past is quickly catching up with us
Mar 1, 2021, 8:48 AM
The U.S. Capitol is seen behind the razor fence around the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
I happened to notice that Google announced a whole new set of features for its smartphones, including a password checkup tool, a way to schedule your texts, and a better screen reader among many other improvements.
As I was reading all this, for no particular reason, I suddenly flashed back to when my grandma took me to the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and we saw the picture phone.
It was a phone booth where you dialed the number without a dial — you pressed buttons. You sat at a desk, and when you picked up the handset with the curly cord, you could look at a screen and see a picture of the person you were talking to live!
A few months later, AT&T installed one at Grand Central, where for $16, you could make a three-minute call to the only other person with a picture phone. That’s the equivalent of a $135 today.
I don’t know how to break it to you all, but all of us are living in the future right now. You have access to every human being, every piece of human knowledge, as well as the power to summon any piece of merchandise or any kind of food to your door.
And at the same time, there’s an investigation going on to figure out why a bunch of people stormed the Capitol of the nation that pretty much made all this happen.
I just hope they find the answer before the past catches up with them.
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