It was pretty rare that you'd know someone on another continent and want to face time with them, but if you did (and didn't want to spend months travelling), I think you'd be stuck using magic. Doctor Faustus for example used his deal with the devil to allow him to travel rapidly around Europe and visit famous people like the Pope.
I think it's fun how much of what a modern mobile phone gives us is an amalgam of magic from fantasy stories - Jack's harp that plays itself, Aragorn's Palantir, predictions of future weather and harvest (without even having to consult any entrails), summoning physical items to your location (with 1 hour prime), inhabiting and controlling remote drone servants, imbuing talismans you wear around your wrist with the power to keep you healthy, or binding you with someone else so they always know where you are.
And of course one of the main functions of magic in the ancient world is accessed through twitter - the power to curse an enemy.
> I think it's fun how much of what a modern mobile phone gives us is an amalgam of magic from fantasy stories
This goes deeper than most people realize. Think of fantasy stories which use some kind of crystal as a medium for magic. Well, a modern mobile phone literally works through crystals, we just don't think of them because they're usually encased in plastic or covered by a metal heat spreader. A LED lamp is literally a crystal which glows. And so on.
They also haven't died of cholera or due to a broken leg. I doubt an average child saw a coral reef, iceberg or a glacier in their lifetime at any point in history.
What the hell did you think kids used to eat, carrion and dirt? Tomato has been a staple food for several centuries now.
My grandparents and great-grandparents and their have all certainly eaten ripe tomatoes and their lifespan covers a revolution, a civil war, WW2 and a famine.
Obviously if you live in a different climate, then a tomato gets replaces by something else.
