<story><title>Why lasers are so brilliantly useful</title><url>https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2021/01/07/why-lasers-are-so-brilliantly-useful</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nearbuy</author><text>On the topic of how wondrous technologies become mundane, I find it amazing how we surpassed some of the magic from Harry Potter, and no one is impressed.&lt;p&gt;The first book was published in 1997. The characters have very handy magic wands, which among other things can be used as flashlights. They can send magical letters (howlers) that can yell at someone in the sender&amp;#x27;s voice.&lt;p&gt;Fast forward to 2021, and suddenly everyone is walking around with a fancy tool in their pocket that can be a flashlight, instantly video chat with people, and answer questions on nearly any topic.&lt;p&gt;Even the offensive spells seem inferior to modern weapons. The wizards have to recite an incantation for every shot, while assault rifles can spray 900 rounds per minute.</text></item><item><author>wincy</author><text>A lifetime ago I worked a retail job. I’d often say to coworkers “isn’t it amazing we get to work in the future, we get to use laser beams all the time!” They’d stare at me blankly, and I’d squeeze the “laser gun” I was holding in my hands to scan a UPC. The most I’d ever get was a groan like I’d told a dad joke. No one was ever impressed.&lt;p&gt;To me it’s amazing how such wondrous technological advances become mundane so quickly, the future is here and nobody is astonished.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cogman10</author><text>I graduated high school in 2004.  It constantly amazes me how far we&amp;#x27;ve come.&lt;p&gt;Back in the 90s, CDs were the height of getting music.  1 disk would carry around 24 songs.  That&amp;#x27;s it.  The internet was accessible, but limited to around 56kbps on a desktop.  Mobile data wasn&amp;#x27;t a thing.  Texting wasn&amp;#x27;t a thing.  Cell phones were barely a thing, but coverage was practically non-existent.&lt;p&gt;Most people got their media only from broadcast stations.  You had radio, television, and the newspaper and that was pretty much it.&lt;p&gt;The fact that data is available pretty much everywhere is incredible.  Even in the last 10 years, we&amp;#x27;ve went from data being only available in the cities to being able to stream video in all but the most remote parts of the US.&lt;p&gt;On top of that, something not really appreciated by the general public is just how good codecs have gotten.  It is INCREDIBLE what can be done with the same amount of bandwidth we had in the 90s.  AV1 + Opus can very nearly stream SD content at 56kbps!  1Mbps wasn&amp;#x27;t enough for SD content with MPEG2 and MP3 audio.  Now, 1Mbps is enough for 1080p HD content.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why lasers are so brilliantly useful</title><url>https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2021/01/07/why-lasers-are-so-brilliantly-useful</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nearbuy</author><text>On the topic of how wondrous technologies become mundane, I find it amazing how we surpassed some of the magic from Harry Potter, and no one is impressed.&lt;p&gt;The first book was published in 1997. The characters have very handy magic wands, which among other things can be used as flashlights. They can send magical letters (howlers) that can yell at someone in the sender&amp;#x27;s voice.&lt;p&gt;Fast forward to 2021, and suddenly everyone is walking around with a fancy tool in their pocket that can be a flashlight, instantly video chat with people, and answer questions on nearly any topic.&lt;p&gt;Even the offensive spells seem inferior to modern weapons. The wizards have to recite an incantation for every shot, while assault rifles can spray 900 rounds per minute.</text></item><item><author>wincy</author><text>A lifetime ago I worked a retail job. I’d often say to coworkers “isn’t it amazing we get to work in the future, we get to use laser beams all the time!” They’d stare at me blankly, and I’d squeeze the “laser gun” I was holding in my hands to scan a UPC. The most I’d ever get was a groan like I’d told a dad joke. No one was ever impressed.&lt;p&gt;To me it’s amazing how such wondrous technological advances become mundane so quickly, the future is here and nobody is astonished.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ampdepolymerase</author><text>The fidelius charm violates every known law of information theory and machine learning heuristics, not to mention the philosophical implications.</text></comment>