Holding the bulky brick cellphone heB次元官网网址檚 credited with inventing 50 years ago, Martin Cooper thinks about the future.

Little did he know when he made the first call on a New York City street from a thick gray prototype that our world B次元官网网址� and our information B次元官网网址� would come to be encapsulated on a sleek glass sheath where we search, connect, like and buy.

HeB次元官网网址檚 optimistic that future advances in mobile technology can transform human lives but is also worried about and young people.

B次元官网网址淢y most negative opinion is we donB次元官网网址檛 have any privacy anymore because everything about us is now recorded someplace and accessible to somebody who has enough intense desire to get it,B次元官网网址� the 94-year-old told The Associated Press at , the where he was getting a lifetime award this week in Barcelona.

Besides worrying about the erosion of privacy, Cooper also acknowledged the negative side effects that come with , such as internet addiction and making it easy for .

But Cooper, describing himself as a dreamer and an optimist, said heB次元官网网址檚 hopeful that advances in cellphone technology have the potential to revolutionize areas like education and health care.

B次元官网网址淏etween the cellphone and medical technology and the Internet, we are going to conquer disease,B次元官网网址� he said.

ItB次元官网网址檚 a long way from where he started.

Cooper made the first public call from a handheld portable telephone on a Manhattan street on April 3, 1973, using a prototype device that his team at Motorola had started designing only five months earlier.

Cooper used the Dyna-TAC phone to famously call his rival at Bell Labs, owned by AT&T. It was, literally, the worldB次元官网网址檚 first brick phone, weighing 2.5 pounds and measuring 11 inches. Cooper spent the best part of the next decade working to bring a commercial version of the device to market.

The call helped kick-start the cellphone revolution, but looking back on that moment 50 years later, B次元官网网址渨e had no way of knowing this was the historic moment,B次元官网网址� Cooper said.

B次元官网网址淭he only thing that I was worried about: B次元官网网址業s this thing going to work?B次元官网网址� And it did,B次元官网网址� he said Monday.

While blazing a trail for the wireless communications industry, he hoped that cellphone technology was just getting started.

Cooper said heB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址渘ot crazyB次元官网网址� about the shape of modern smartphones, blocks of plastic, metal and glass. He thinks phones will evolve so that they will be B次元官网网址渄istributed on your body,B次元官网网址� perhaps as sensors B次元官网网址渕easuring your health at all times.B次元官网网址�

Batteries could even be replaced by human energy.

B次元官网网址淭he human body is the charging station, right? You ingest food, you create energy. Why not have this receiver for your ear embedded under your skin, powered by your body?B次元官网网址� he imagined.

Cooper also acknowledged thereB次元官网网址檚 a dark side to advances B次元官网网址� the risk to privacy and to children.

, where there are , and elsewhere are concerned about apps and digital ads that track user activity, allowing tech and digital ad companies to build up rich profiles of users.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 going to get resolved, but not easily,B次元官网网址� Cooper said. B次元官网网址淭here are people now that can justify measuring where you are, where youB次元官网网址檙e making your phone calls, who youB次元官网网址檙e calling, what you access on the Internet.B次元官网网址�

is another area that needs limits, Cooper said. One idea is to have B次元官网网址渧arious internets curated for different audiences.B次元官网网址�

Five-year-olds should be able to use the internet to help them learn, but B次元官网网址渨e donB次元官网网址檛 want them to have access to pornography and to things that they donB次元官网网址檛 understand,B次元官网网址� he said.

The inspiration for CooperB次元官网网址檚 cellphone idea was not the personal communicators on Star Trek, but comic strip detective Dick TracyB次元官网网址檚 radio wristwatch. As for his own phone use, Cooper says he checks email and does online searches for information to settle dinner table arguments.

However, B次元官网网址渢here are many things that I have not yet learned,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淚 still donB次元官网网址檛 know what TikTok is.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址擪elvin Chan, The Associated Press