Nikola Tesla's Hundred Year Old Prediction About Smartphones Is Eerily Accurate | Mach | NBC news

1876 a man named Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone our cell phones have become so ubiquitous that we barely use them as well bones they're now our pocket cameras the platform for our apps and machines to text chat and send images when you step back and think about it it's pretty wild but this was all predicted nearly a century ago it all started with the landline remember those Uncle Bill captain Adam she wants to talk to you thanks Jimmy in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell received the first US patent for the wired electric phone and spun up the Bell company which would later become AT&T almost right away technologists wanted more and they wanted mobile in a shockingly prescient interview in 1926 famed inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla described his view of a wireless phone a man will be able to carry one in his vest-pocket he said we shall be able to communicate with one another instantly to witness and hear events the inauguration of a president the playing of a World Series game or the terror of a battle just as though we were present Colliers magazine described Tesla's dream as simple vest-pocket equipment but the reality was anything but simple he was describing a mobile phone that could transmit photo and video to we've realized Tesla's prediction and then some but the way we communicate is much different than anyone could have imagined in 1926 and not everyone thinks the proliferation of mobile phones has been a good thing in the decades after Tesla's prediction a number of Hardware prototypes were created in the late 50s a moscow engineer created concepts for handheld phones and early car telephones emerged in 1964 Bell's own company unveiled the AT&T picture phone which provided two-way face-to-face communication at a whopping $200 per call Motorola introduced the first mobile phone prototype in 1973 throughout the 70s and 80s investment poured in to develop wireless systems to support these concepts and make connections across the globe the first commercial services launched in 1983 and since then we've seen 2g 3G 4G 5g the explosion of text messaging social media and a plethora of apps that can seemingly do anything all in our pockets Tesla thought wireless phones would help us better communicate with each other and would make us feel present everywhere but today some would argue we're not present anywhere numerous studies show were hurting our necks our thumbs even our relationships thanks to our cell phone addiction one study showed Americans collectively check their phones eight billion times per day yet we're using them to make calls to friends and family less and less still as Tesla predicted we can FaceTime with family follow a Presidential Inauguration on Twitter and stream the world series mobile phones have become both freeing and limiting devices for both pleasure and work pros and cons but they have become inextricably tied to our lives just as Tesla called it [Music] hey NBC News fans thanks for checking out our YouTube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching

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Keywords: NBC, NBC News, NBC Mach, Mach, Technology, Tech, Innovation, Science, Medicine, Math, Mathematics, Space, Space Exploration, Environment, Nature, Autonomy, Computers, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Robots, Alexander Graham Bell, AT&T, Bell Company, Wired Telephones, Mobile Phones, Smartphones, Nikola Tesla, Tesla, Wireless Phones, instant communication, television, live broadcast, pocket cameras, apps, smartphone apps, communication, wireless communication, handheld phones, car phones, Motorola

Id: CFOvuzj6XF8

Length: 3min 41sec (221 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2017