Surprising at 40

The cellphone stepped lightly into middle age on Thursday. Immune to the ageing process,it is slimmer than Twiggy. At an age when humans fill out,get lifestyle disorders and worry about superannuation,the phone is surprisingly agile and adventurous. What used to be a communications device that fit in the pocket has become the Swiss Army knife of a networked world. It is taking over the computers turf and changing the form and content of communications. Eventually,it could become the computer.

Forty years ago,the first mobile call was made from a Motorola DynaTAC,a huge,ugly,overpriced brick of a phone that nevertheless made it to Hollywood,featuring in Wall Street and American Psycho. Today,it is difficult to recall what life was like without the comfort of a phone in ones pocket and the luxury of always-on internet on that phone. The smartphone has made social media possible. Meanwhile,basic models are connecting villages across the country and erasing the PCO network,which had powered the first communications revolution in India.

Perhaps this is the golden age of the cellphone,a trusty device that is always with the user but apart from the user,a device she can switch off. But humans evolve through their creations. So,40 years on,the phone could be part of the user. A sim-card inserted in a slot behind the ear. A network that reads the mind. And no power switch,because hitting it would shut down the part of the mind that lives on the network,with unpredictable results for the sanity of the individual and the species. Theres no stopping progress but maybe the cellphone should be kept where it belongs in the pocket.