⌚ Indistinguishable from magic: Calling my wife from the lake using my watch

Mathias Sundin -

A couple of hundred meters from our cottage is a lake. It is a crater from a meteorite that hit Earth millions of years ago.

Anyway, as I was swimming there the other day I thought I'd try calling my wife. So I unlocked my Apple Watch and told Siri to "Call Wife."

After a couple of rings she picked up and we chatted about the absurd and wonderful thing that I was calling from the middle of the lake using my watch.

When I got up, the watch had measured what distance I had swum, using GPS satellites in space.

Clarke in February 1965, on one of the sets of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Wikimedia.

In his third law, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke said:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Sometimes I like to stop and think of everyday technology through the lens of Clarke's third law.

Again:

  • I made a phone call with my watch.
  • The watch tracked my swim using satellites in space.
  • I was in the water, in a lake.
  • I told the AI voice assistant to make the call.
  • The call was free.

What a time to be alive!