The sub-$100 laptop is here. Why aren't you dancing?

They said it couldn’t be done. And they were right. For a long time, at least. About ten years ago, the dream of the $100 laptop was touted as the pinnacle of democratizing technology, the magic carpet that would lift billions of kids out of poverty and connect them to the world. It was a noble idea. And, as it turned out, kind of an impossible one.

That was then. Of course, this Acer Chromebook isn’t the same thing: it’s not designed to be dragged through the jungle or bounce across the desert on a camel’s back, you can’t charge the battery with a hand crank, it can’t connect to other computers via a mesh network. But it can do a whole lot of things that a similarly-positioned no-frills laptop of ten years ago couldn’t, simply because advances in technology have shifted the frame.

We’re talking about ninety bucks for a laptop that can do anything you can do in a web browser or a Chrome app - which is a lot nowadays, from Netflix to Skype to casual games to spreadsheets - and that can run for eight hours on a charge. Yeah, it’s only got 2GB of RAM. The screen’s not IPS or 1080 HD. It’s only got a 16GB SSD drive, so you’ll need to keep your files in the cloud or use the SD and USB slots for extra storage. But ninety dollars. Think about that. Ninety dollars.

When’s the parade?

OK, OK, we know Wired won’t be calling us for an interview. The most we can expect is some excitement from people who know they’re getting a great deal. We can’t save the world with these laptops. The cosmic spectacle that is existence will grind on from day to day, in all its absurdity and comedy, injustice and transcendence. You will still be annoyed at packages that are difficult to open and obnoxious people who won’t shut up and instant meals that still have a cold spot in the middle no matter how long you microwave them.

Still, let’s take a minute to think about all the once-unimaginable things that have happened to put this kind of labor-saving, horizon-expanding, potentially life-changing machine before you - for ninety dollars. Just a few years ago, it would have been considered a miracle. If it’s not, that’s only because the world has gotten so much more miraculous that we expect more from our miracles today.