i’m talking about things we use without a second thought that might seem utterly ridiculous or inefficient in 50-100 years. like landlines or vhs players seemed to us. what’s your pick?

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    6 hours ago

    Flashlights produce orders of magnitude more light than any smartphone.

    Flashlights can definitely put out a lot more light (and store more power) than a cell phone light, but for a lot of close-up stuff, the cell phone is fine.

    I’m skeptical that flashlights will go away, as @[email protected] is proposing. But I do think that smartphones are a partial replacement.

    In urban areas, I don’t need a bright flashlight much, because there’s fixed lighting all over, but in more rural areas, if you’re outside at night and walking around, you do tend to need a flashlight.

    I also don’t know how much more change there will be. Like, people already have smartphones pretty much everywhere. I think that most of the replacement that will happen has probably already happened.