by Eric Brown

What's it mean to be wireless? You can disconnect the physical experience from the acoustic. Run around Vancouver's seawall on a glorious day with your eyes to the ground and your ears tuned to Z95 (95.3 FM) . Conduct business on your mobile phone in the foyer of the local library. Let everybody know that you have better things to hear and more important people to speak to than them.

When you're wired, the grid defines the limits of your connections, your access to power. When you go wireless, the grid is gone. The boundaries have no meaning. And there's nowhere you can go to escape. Wherever you are, as soon as you close your eyes, the phone will ring...

You can get a single phone number that links all your phones @ work, home, mobile, even fax. Not at your desk? The system seeks you out at home, your cell phone, your cottage. You will be found. And you'd better have a good excuse.

My grandfather never quite embraced telephones, and never understood the separation of the acoustic from the physical. He didn't say "Hello" when he picked up the ringing phone, just put it to his ear and waited. And when he'd spoken his piece, he just hung up, click. But if you watched him, you could see there was no rudeness intended. His arm gestures and body language punctuated the conversation, filling in the missing words eloquently. Too bad it didn't work for the caller.

Wireless means there's no more "telephone spot" at home, where it's normal to have conversations with no one else physically present. Wireless means people talk everywhere. Loudly. Personal conversations, business arguments, that everyone on the street gets to share. Whether they want to or not.

A fairly shaggy-looking guy, real big, was having an animated, but solo, conversation. I crossed to other side. On second glance, I noticed the cell phone in his hand, and felt myself relax. On third glance, I saw the phone. It was little, pink, with a Barbie logo, the battery flap hanging open.

In a public washroom, is it more rude to ignore the ringing cell phone or to answer it? Shared acoustic space may not be what the caller wants.