DEL MAR, Calif. (AP) 鈥� Dick Tracy got an atom-powered two-way wrist radio in 1946. Marty Cooper never forgot it.
The Chicago boy became a star engineer who ran Motorola鈥檚 research and development arm when the hometown telecommunications titan was locked in a 1970s corporate battle to invent the portable phone. Cooper rejected AT&T鈥檚 wager on the car phone, betting that America wanted to feel like Dick Tracy, armed with 鈥渁 device that was an extension of you, that made you reachable everywhere.鈥�
Fifty-two years ago, Cooper declared victory in a call from a Manhattan sidewalk to the head of AT&T鈥檚 rival program. His four-pound DynaTAC 8000X has evolved into a global population of billions of smartphones weighing mere ounces apiece. Some 4.6 billion people 鈥� nearly 60% of the world 鈥� have mobile internet, according to a global association of mobile network operators.
The tiny computers that we carry by the billions are becoming massive, interlinked networks of processors that perform trillions of calculations per second 鈥� the computing power that artificial intelligence needs. The simple landlines once used to call friends or family have evolved into omnipresent glossy screens that never leave our sight and flood our brain with hours of data daily, deluging us with endless messages, emails, videos and a soundtrack that many play constantly to block the outside world.
From his home in Del Mar, California, the inventor of the mobile phone, now 96, watches all of this. Of one thing Cooper is certain: The revolution has really just begun.
The phone is about to become a thinking computer
Now, the winner of the 2024 National Medal of Technology and Innovation 鈥� the United States鈥� highest honor for technological achievement 鈥� is focused on the cellphone鈥檚 imminent transition to a thinking mobile computer fueled by human calories to avoid dependence on batteries. Our new parts will run constant tests on our bodies and feed our doctors real-time results, Cooper predicts.
Human behavior is already adapting to smartphones, some observers say, using them as tools that allow overwhelmed minds to focus on quality communication.
The phone conversation has become the way to communicate the most intimate of social ties, says Claude Fischer, a sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley and author of 鈥淎merica Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940.鈥�
For almost everyone, the straight up phone call has become an intrusion. Now everything needs to be pre-advised with a message.
鈥淭here seems to be a sense that the phone call is for heart-to-heart,鈥� Fischer says.
And this from a 20-year-old corroborates that: 鈥淭he only person I call on a day-to-day basis is my cousin,鈥� says Ayesha Iqbal, a psychology student at Suffolk County Community College. 鈥淚 primarily text everyone else.鈥�
When she was a girl, Karen Wilson鈥檚 family shared a party line with other phone customers outside Buffalo, New York, and had to wait to use the phone if someone else was on. Wilson, 79, shocked her granddaughter by telling her about the party line when the girl got a cellphone as a teenager.
鈥淲hat did you do if you didn鈥檛 wait?鈥欌�� the girl asked. Responded her grandmother: 鈥渀You went down to their house and you yelled, 鈥楬ey, Mary, can you come out?鈥欌��
The brave new world has a price
Many worry about the changes exerted by our newly interconnected, highly stimulated world.
We increasingly buy online and get products delivered without the possibility of serendipity. There are fewer opportunities to greet a neighbor or store employee and find out something unexpected, to make a friend, to fall in love. People are working more efficiently as they drown.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no barrier to the number of people who can be reaching out to you at the same time and it鈥檚 just overwhelming,鈥� says Kristen Burks, an associate circuit judge in Macon, Missouri.
Most importantly, sociologists, psychologists and teachers say, near-constant phone-driven screen time is cutting into kids鈥� ability to learn and socialize. A growing movement is pushing back against cellphones鈥� intrusion into children鈥檚 daily lives.
Seven states have signed 鈥� and twenty states have introduced 鈥� statewide bell-to-bell phone bans in schools. Additional states have moved to prohibit them during teaching time.
Global inequality is an issue
The mobile advantage is coming to rich countries faster than poor ones.
Adjusting to life in Russia when Nnaemeka Agbo moved there from Nigeria in 2023 was tough, he says, but one thing kept him going; WhatsApp calls with family.
In a country that has one of the world鈥檚 highest poverty and hunger levels despite being Africa鈥檚 top oil producer, Agbo鈥檚 experience mirrored that of many young people in forced to choose between remaining at home with family and taking a chance at a better life elsewhere.
For many, phone calls blur distance with comfort.
鈥淣o matter how busy my schedule is, I must call my people every weekend, even if that鈥檚 the only call I have to make,鈥� Agbo says.
In Africa, where only 37% of the population had internet access in 2023, according to the International Telecommunication Union, regular mobile calls are the only option many have.
Tabane Ciss茅, who moved from Senegal to Spain in 2023, makes phone calls about investing Spanish earnings at home. Otherwise, it鈥檚 all texts, or voice notes, with one exception.
His mother doesn鈥檛 read or write, but when he calls 鈥渋t鈥檚 as if I was standing next to her,鈥� Ciss茅 says. 鈥淚t brings back memories 鈥� such pleasure.鈥�
He couldn鈥檛 do it without the cell phone. And half a world away, that suits Marty Cooper just fine.
鈥淭here are more cell phones in the world today than there are people,鈥� Cooper says. 鈥淵our life can be made infinitely more efficient just by virtue of being connected with everybody else in the world. But I have to tell you that this is only the beginning.鈥�
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Weissenstein contributed from New York and Asadu from Lagos, Nigeria. Aroun R. Deen in New York, Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, Renata Brito in Barcelona, Spain and Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York also contributed.
Michael Weissenstein, Chinedu Asadu And Javier Arciga, The Associated Press
