Fun fact: "transparent aluminum" is a reality, albeit insanely expensive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride

Didn't anyone else wonder why they needed transparent aluminium? Wouldn't some water proof cameras have been sufficient to keep an eye on the whales?

Corundum is also transparent aluminum and it's insanely cheap.

Speaking of which, where's our sapphire phone screens already?

Sapphire is too brittle to be of much use in a phone screen. It would increase scratch resistance but be more prone to breaking than chemically strengthened glass. It works for watches because they can make it thicker to compensate.

You can say he tried to use Siri before Siri was developed. Talked into the mouse "Hello computer".