Would Bell, Edison Recognize Their Inventions' Descendents?

My favorite quote of the week comes from Tom Raftery, a social-media blogger and business-tech manager from Ireland, speaking at a European conference last week:

“If you placed an iPhone in front of Alexander Graham Bell (below), he wouldn’t recognize what it was. But if you put an electricity grid in front of Thomas Edison (right), he’d recognize it straightaway; that’s because electricity grids haven’t changed much in the past 100 years.

“These grids need to change, they need to harness electricity in smarter ways, and they need to harness renewable energy from wind, solar and wave power. If the electricity grid went the way of the Internet in terms of interconnectivity, every householder and car holder could be a power broker.”