Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.
I heard that smartphones are currently being developed that no longer require a battery. That should really be possible. These smartphones are charged in the fresh air, so to speak, by radio waves. Once the new 6G mobile communications standard has been introduced, battery-free cellphones will hit the big time.
I’ll have to get used to it a lot. I was still able to experience the time when there were normal mobile phones. Those were from Siemens or AEG. The screens on these phones could show things like the time, cell signal strength — and battery level.
But that was the least interesting piece of information. Because the battery status changed little. You had electricity for weeks. That was enough for what a mobile phone could do, calls and text messages. Smartphones, on the other hand, can do a little more, but consume about as much energy as a small town. And both performance and consumption are increasing from year to year. But if the battery is empty, you can’t do anything. Because you need your smartphone for almost everything.
The battery icon on the display is my guiding star. If the charge level of the battery reaches 20 percent, I get into inner distress. As I approach five percent, my condition is similar to that on my deathbed. What can I still achieve in the last meters, what is the most important thing?
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The battery will soon be at one percent – and I’m at the stage of the last words. If the battery then gives up, it’s like a near-death experience for me: you’re still there, but you can no longer make yourself noticed. You couldn’t even share your location anymore. For the environment you are gone, soon forgotten.
In order not to be forgotten, I am always keen to be near an outlet. Most of my life happens between 94 and 6 percent. This is nerve-wracking, but creates a certain drama in life. Who doesn’t know those breathless conversations when you know the battery is about to die? After each word, the other could be gone. This is a symbol of finitude.
That used to be the case when the last penny slipped through the telephone. I can hardly imagine that at some point this will no longer be part of our lives. That the stories of the empty battery will one day be the tales of grandfathers. What have we suffered – and the coming generations will not understand it.
In return, they will worry that they are not receiving enough radio waves to operate smartphones. It will never be the case again that someone just makes a phone call like that.
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