What I Learned Today - "Communication, not cleanliness, is next to godliness"

26th February 2008

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“Communication, not cleanliness, is next to godliness”

says Kevin Kelly of Wired, referencing a home in Tibet which has no toilet, outhouse, or designated hole in the ground, but has a cell phone and fantastic coverage.

In only 26 years, the cellphone technology has spread faster than any technology in human history – even faster than the polio vaccination. There are now 3.3 billion active cellphones in a world of about 6.6 billion people. That’s one phone for every two humans on Earth! And there are at least 30 nations with more cellphones than population.

Here’s an article from early 1982, when cellphones were first introduced. My favorite quote from the article: “‘If you can start getting phone calls anywhere, all the Type A personalities in the world will be having heart attacks at the age of 31.’”