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August 1, 2006
Modern Miracles
Twenty-four hours ago, I was working at my desk when the Chief Architect, for whom I work, asked how fast I could get to Strasbourg, France. Since I already had a passport, and no visa is required for less than 90 days, I am posting this from Strasbourg. Here are the minor miracles of the last day of my life:
- I paid about the same as a cup of coffee to send a package of books halfway across the United States. I have more than a 99% confidence that it will arrive within a week or two, and more than a 95% confidence that it will do so undamaged. Actually, it's about half of a price of a Starbucks coffee.
- I booked a flight from Detroit, MI, USA to Strasbourg, France, for the same day I booked it.
- I was able to get US currency after business hours in the US, and Euros without visiting a bank in France, through the magic of ATMs.
- I had wireless internet connectivity at the airport after I landed, to find the hotel I had not even bothered to reserve before I left the US, and now at the hotel, where I am waiting for a call from a person who will be using a US cell phone to call me. He is in France, too.
- Without talking to an operator or making any special arrangements, I was able to call the US and get a line as clear as if I had called from within the US.
Sometimes I forget how miraculous the world is. On-line travel booking, ATMs, an efficient postal service, globally-accessible credit cards, globally-usable phones — just the taken-for-granted tools of everyday life, but consider that none of this would have been possible for a private person for any amount of money just thirty years ago. Fifty years ago, I am not convinced that a government could have pulled that off on less than eight hours' notice. One hundred years ago, these things were impossible dreams, each and every one.
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