The life-changer

I Fyour surname is Cooper it will mean that somewhere in history a significant member of the family was a cooper – someone who plied his trade making mainly wooden barrels. The term comes from the Dutch (and German) küper, meaning cask.

Those with that surname will enjoy recalling that, way back in their (very) extended family, there were two rather special Coopers. One in the sport of boxing was a guy called Henry Cooper, the first boxer to put the great Mohammed Ali down in a fight. Ali won in the next round but claimed Cooper was the ‘toughest fighter he’d ever met’.

The second Cooper, and one who made a much bigger impact in terms of historical achievement, but was far less broadly known, was a guy called Martin (‘Marty’) Cooper. But he went very big on April 3, 1973 – more than 50 years ago now – by walking round before a huge crowd in front of a posh hotel in New York, while pressing a few buttons on a device. With reporters and photographers agog, Cooper used the device to start talking to his arch research rival, Joel Engel, known to be 64 kilometres away. “Hello Joel, how are you? I’m calling you from the very first hand-held mobile phone.” Well, I suspect Martin Cooper was rather more tactful than that, but it proved to be one of the seminal moments in human – or technological – history.

The ability to send short text messages, and later pictures and later still emojis, would follow. But while mobile phones have substantially altered the way human beings communicate with each other, it is in other areas that the really sensational changes have been achieved. Computer chips and transistors became smaller and faster, allowing the functionality of the cellphone to expand. Then came the smartphone and lots of fancy stuff – internet browsers, Bluetooth and location services. GPS equipment in smartphones enabled us to use them as sat-navs. The technological bundling has been intensifying ever since.

Mobile internet speeds and computational power have increased, and innovative software applications have been accommodated. Then you move into overdrive. In brain surgery, iphones have begun to replace the expensive equipment that displays the videos captured by endoscopes. During COVID-19, Bluetooth enabled software engineers to build contact-tracing systems.

Nuisance

In school classrooms, of course, mobile phones are generally considered a nuisance and even banned from being in pupil possession. But the situation is now somewhat blurred as you see the mobile phones emerging as the facilitators of interactive learning. Apps such as Duolingo have brought gaming into language learning. While others, such as an app called Complete Anatomy, have helped pupils learn about the intricate workings of the human body, even showing them how muscles move. Some argue that it is ‘democratising’ education because you no longer need expensive lap-tops and headphones. For my money, however, I can never visualise a small mobile phone being a replacement study tool.

The smartphone has been used to enter so many areas of human activity. It even helps our engagement with the natural world with apps such as PictureThis or Google Lens, to identify plants that we come across. Farmers are able to use phone-based apps to help them manage irrigation schedules, and identify weeds, disease, pests and other signs of stress in the fields. Scientists can now monitor a forest’s carbon sequestration.

The physical characteristics of the ‘beige box’ that was the original mobile phone do not provide any sort of match for the modern smartphone. But it was the start, just as the early internal combustion engine cars would hardly secure an onlooker gasp when next to the Bugatti’s and Maserati’s of today. In much the same manner as the arrival of the self-drive electric car, the smartphone continues to evolve. In every day average guy use we will inevitably see a drive to pack more into less. The candy bar style rectangular shape that is too big for many, will surely give way to a new generation of folding phones that provide the ability for larger screens to fit into the average pocket.

Device

And let us not forget the ‘smart glasses’. Therein lies the potential to transfer smartphone capabilities into wearable technology. Despite the built-in hands-free dimension to such a device, there has not been much progress so far. The general wisdom on this is that the device makes a huge amount of sense. Why fumble around in your pocket when audio can be piped? But so far no one has made a good pair that’s affordable. Google Glass had a go at it but failed and withdrew that; and subsequent alternatives performed similarly.

Who would have thought that the perceived uses of the clumsy-looking beige box of 1973 would metamorphose into the remarkable change in lifestyle experienced by the average human being, especially the youngsters. There are significant benefits as well as challenges experienced by the average human being; especially the youngsters of each society. Perhaps the biggest concern is the danger of smartphone addiction, which most parents fear has infiltrated the mind of their teenage son or daughter. And the too-ready access to social media such as Instagram or X (formerly Twitter). When is the right age for the first smartphone? Let’s talk about it next week.