PARIS — By calculating the equivalent in muscle mass of the energy that powers gadgets used by humans, engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici, a Mines ParisTech professor and president of the Shift Project, concluded that a typical French person lives as if they had 600 extra workers at their disposal.
People’s wrists are adorned with the equivalent power of a supercomputer — all thanks (or not) to Apple, which made the smartwatch a worldwide phenomenon when it launched the Apple Watch in 2014, just as it did with the smartphone with the 2007 launch of the iPhone.
Similar watches existed before 2014, but it was Apple that drove their dazzling success. Traditional watchmakers, who, no matter what they say, didn’t really believe in them at first, are now on board. They used to talk about complications and phases of the moon, but now they’re talking about operating systems.
Smartwatch as baby sitter
The fact remains that this is a major step forward for humankind.
In the days when Homo sapiens wore a simple watch, one would say: I’m going out for a 15-minute walk, whereas nowadays, we go out to get our 10,000 steps in. It’s a game-changer. We can also tell Instagram all about our progress, take our pulse, meditate mindfully — you name it.
Watches have become so smart that their owners don’t even need to be smart anymore.
Watches have become so smart that their owners don’t even need to be smart anymore. Your fitness coach can be the babysitter. Connected watches for children account for half the market. Parents use them to geolocate their children: “Find my kids.”
How awful, psychologists say, as they believe that education should grant children autonomy, rather than keeping them on a leash. Or on a wristband.
