Here's another way in which smartphones might transform the way we live and work: by offering insights into human psychology and behavior and, thus, supporting smarter social science.
The Afar are pastoralists, and except for the addition of firearms, their lives today are not substantially different from the way they were 500 years ago.
But today, on the 10th anniversary of the company, let's take a moment to consider a less obvious advantage: the potential for smartphone technology to revolutionize behavioral science.
But they never altered their incorrect mental models of planetary motion because their every day observations didn't support what their teachers told them.
But after the American Robert Peary claimed to have reached it in 1909, both men hastily altered their plans, instead they would aim for the last big prize: the South Pole.
"The evidence is good that most personality traits can be altered," says Christopher Peterson, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who cites himself as an example.