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The evening current events show As it Happens on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) reports that American engineer Justine Haupt is the creator of a rotary-dial mobile phone.
Listen to the full 5m39s radio interview or read a shortened transcript on-line.
Justine Haupt, who created her own cellphone with a rotary dial, said she did so because she doesn't like how hyper-connected people have become in the world of smartphones.
"You can't browse the internet, it can't text, and all of that is intentional because I have a problem with how hyper-connected everyone is nowadays.
[...]Haupt, a 34-year-old space engineer, explains that although the phone operates on a 3G cellular network, it is not a smartphone.
"It's as un-smart as it can be, intentionally."
Haupt aims to use the phone on a daily basis and tried to make it as compact as possible, so it could fit in a pocket.
The phone does integrate some modern features, such as programmable shortcut buttons for calling specific numbers, a power switch, and a curved e-paper screen that displays basic information such as missed calls.
Though only briefly mentioned in the interview, the phone incorporates open source hardware from Adafruit Industries.
Full project description and documentation can be found on Haupt's webpage: http://justine-haupt.com/rotarycellphone/index.html
(Score: 5, Insightful) by darkfeline on Monday February 17 2020, @11:45AM (3 children)
I like how it is stated
> I have a problem with how hyper-connected everyone is nowadays
as a matter of fact. Such a statement wouldn't be amiss during earlier rejections of intellectualism.
Greater access to information is a good thing. Idolatry of ignorance is ass backward and seemingly always occurs when humans are struggling to adapt to overwhelming change. It's comforting to stick one's head in the sand and dream of simpler times.
It's true that the information age has challenged our ability to cope with large amounts of information, but the path of progress lies not with the side trying to return to ignorance. We will learn how to best use our new technology, just as we have in the past.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @05:52PM
But if we went backwards we could make America great again. Take our country back. Long live the King!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Monday February 17 2020, @07:46PM
What if the screen is propagating ignorance and not information?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday February 18 2020, @03:10PM
But they aren't, in this case, and it isn't about something so simple as greater or lesser access to information.
When your every move is tracked, for instance, that doesn't necessarily give you any extra information at all. It's giving someone else, someone unknown, someone who certainly doesn't have your best interests in mind, all that information. It's not necessarily helpful to you at all, could turn positively harmful and probably will, but on the other hand it /is/ necessarily harmful to society as a whole, to the species, even if it somehow benefits you personally.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?