We Are Now All Sorcerers

In the last ten years, we have undergone a profound change as a people.  We became Sorcerers.  By that, I mean we have come to have a level of control and abilities, indistinguishable from magic a hundred years ago.  It began with the invention of the smartphone (1992), and accelerated by the introduction of the iPhone (2007) and the melding this invention to the internet (1983).  Current smartphone penetration is approaching 80% in first world nations.

The smartphone has become our Sorcerer’s magic wand.  Through it we not only communicate, but have information retrieval abilities exceeding all the libraries of the world anywhere in time.  With web enabled products, we also have the controls to perform magic.  However, these abilities rest on a vast infrastructure, that can only be described the largest, most complex machine, ever built.

This is really not a new event.  Since the industrial revolution, the average person has at his beck and call powers and abilities that kings would have envied.   Hot water on demand (1889)?  Plentiful food of all types year round (early 1800's)?  Chariots with the power of 100 horses (1910)?  To travel thousands of miles a day (1903)?  To communicate anywhere around the world instantly?  We have grown accustomed to these marvels.

Galaxy Smartphone.  Image stolen without permission.

Why the comparison of this technological marvel to the fantasy world of magic?  There are so many apt analogies.  What is fiber optics but ley lines, embedded in the earth?  What are nodes but intersections of ley lines?  Your baud rate diminishes the further away you are from nearby towers, is akin to drawing mana from magical sources.  Cameras are our wizard eyes.  Web sites our weather predictors.  Audible indicators that someone is trying to reach us are invisible servants.  Create light spells on demand! This doesn’t begin to count sensors you can add on to tell you anything you may want to know.  Geiger counters, breathalyzers, printers, weather gauges, 3 D imagery glasses with heads up displays of things around you. 

Most of us are now Sorcerers, we know how to use the magic, but have no clue as to how they work.  Some of us are Wizards, and understand the underpinnings and create new spells (Apps).  But the truth is, we are all still very low level at this time, and still learning, adapting and creating in this new world we find ourselves in.

I am more of a Wizard than a Sorcerer.  But my wizardry is more involved with the deep underpinnings of how the infrastructure works.  As such, I am not a very good Sorcerer.  But day to day life with my own magic wand for the past few years has improved my abilities in that regard.  When I use an app, I don’t just see the result, but I internally diagram how the whole system works, from the display on the screen, the interconnections to the towers, the internet, servers, data storage, and back.  Along the way I see redirects and calls for advertising, cookie reading, and encryptions.

Learning the use of the apps has been a steep learning curve.  Every app is crafted by a unique individual.  Each person does things they way they think best.  And there are millions of them.  Each works a little differently but each one also increases your magical abilities. 

I experienced a culture clash in this regard about 7 years back, when my nephew was thinking about completing his education overseas.  Which I thought was a good idea until he said he was thinking about Argentina.  His rational was simple.  He has friends from Argentina.  I thought this was a bad idea because Argentina was in an economic meltdown.  “What will you do if there is a revolt or if Argentina steals all your money in the bank”?  They already had done this.

He held up his phone, “My money is in a New York Bank.”

I thought about that, and the systems involved.  “That’s ok, until they cut off the internet from the rest of the world.  You won’t have access to your money.  Then you better know where US Embassy is.”

I could tell my words had no meaning to him.  For his entire life, the internet is omnipresent at all times.  It took some time to explain it to him, using examples from Syria and China.  I don’t know if my words took root, but eventually he finished his schooling elsewhere.

It was then I came up with the metaphor, “Wizards and Sorcerers”.  I was a Wizard*, he was a Sorcerer.  I knew intimately how the technology worked, but not how to actually use it.  He was reliant upon the magic, and was skilled at its use, but had no clue how it worked. 

I have revisited this metaphor recently.  I have had a true smartphone for 3 years now.  How much I have grown dependent upon my magic wand is amazing.  This came home last week as I had to ship it for repairs.  With the current Coronavirus Pandemic, there was nowhere within 50 miles to get it fixed, so I’ll be a week or more without it.

The things I could not do any more until it returns.  Many of these things can be performed by other means, but not with the same convenience as with the magic wand.

1)      After my Car GPS Failed, this task was replaced with the smartphone.

2)      My home thermostat has to be adjusted by hand.

3)      Many of my streaming services are on the phone, then casted to the TV via a dongle.

4)      I have to talk to my home assistant to turn on and off the main lights in the house.

5)      When watching TV, I cannot look up things that strike my interest.

6)     My phone immediately lets me know there is an email coming in.  My computer is set to send/receive every 15 minutes.

7)     I cannot receive incoming calls, nor access my voice mail. You would think this would be number 1 on the list.

8)    No texts.  Some of which currently would involve home improvement/repairs currently in progress.

9)     My ambient noise generator I use to sleep to.

10)   My information services, via podcasts.

11)   All my music.

12)   I use the camera for a number of functions.  Including measurements of distances.

13)   A ready flashlight.

14)   Ready information when on the road.

15)  This is pandemic related.  Picking up orders from take-away restaurants require texting them to let you know you are there so they can run your food to the car.

16)   Weather

17)   Stock prices

18)   Commodity prices

19)   Magnifier

20)   Games

21)   Peeking around corners or behind unmovable objects.

22)   I didn’t have my phone set up with some form of digital payment, but in these days of the pandemic, I see the value.  In the drive through lane, people just hold up their phone and it is read by a scanner.  No physical contact with cash or credit card.

Dilbert visited this issue a couple years ago:

In a final note.  There is an overused quote, more true now, then ever, “We are all connected to everyone and everything in the universe”.  And while we all have more power to affect our surroundings, we are also more aware of how great our surroundings are, and how small we are within them.

* My son disagrees, he says I am a Cleric.  I get out the phone and pray that it works :)