I came here to say this. Even before I drank wine, I thought they were neato. Elegant and functional.
To put it in nerd terms:
corkscrew : bottle opener :: light saber : blaster 
Sewing machines. I mean, I understand hand sewing, and I can envision a machine that would do the same thing… but in hand sewing, you need to let go of the needle. It just seems to me that, if you sew something while keeping the needle firmly in “hand” on the same side of the fabric, that the stitching should just fall apart under any tension.
Maybe this is why sewing machines always jam whenever I try to use them: It’s just because I don’t believe in them.
I have sat & watched the needle / bobbin interaction and seen diagrams & pictures with arrows writing on the back & it still is magic to me also.
Bit I can sew pretty good with an old one. 
<BRAG ALERT>Kind of. I was an avionics technician and had a few back seat rides. My 35th birthday present was a 2v1 against F-16s when we were deployed. After the engagements the pilot gave me control and let me fly back to our starting point.
Imagine all the best carnival rides you’ve ever been on rolled into one, and then double it. It’s also very easy to fly compared to something like a Cessna 152 (back when I had my licence). <Brag Endeth>
I still marvel at electricity as well. At my finger tips is more power than the combined might of the largest armies of ancient history. Also, clean water on demand. If you’ve had to go without it for any length of time you know how precious that is! Simply amazing!
Mail. That it moves as quick as it does and how few things actually go astray still fascinates me.
Sun tan lotion.
What.The.Fuck.
Sunshine could kill you. But not if you rub on this cream. It’s like body lotion. Only it protects your FROM THE FUCKING SUN!
Also the fact that we developed this quite some time ago. How clever are we? Go us, we people are cool. We have body lotion that defeats the sun.
A combo; the hammer and nail. So simple and effective it boggles my mind.
As an aside about staplers I have one on my desk from the 1920’s. It has a spool of fine brass wire that it snips off a wee bit as it cycles. It’s pretty worthless for more than 3 sheets of paper but looks cool as hell.
To this I’m going to add home video recording. Today we take DVRs and cell phone cameras for granted, but in the 80s the idea that you could tape moving pictures with sound and color as easily as making audio recordings was revolutionary. Never miss a TV show again. If you weren’t home, just set the timer on your VCR and watch the program later. Want to take movies of your kids? No more sending the film to be developed then setting up the projector. Capture them on videotape, then watch it minutes later on your TV.
All forms of computers - from desktops to laptops to smartphones. Sometimes I’ve just sat staring at my iPod touch, thinking, “There’s no one human being on Earth who could make this by themselves. Everyone has their own little niche - mining the ores used, knowing how to assemble the basic parts - and the machines that assemble the basic parts - knowing how to put those bigger parts together, encasing the whole thing in an aesthetically pleasing shell, etc, etc, etc.” And that’s just people who are involved in the process - for 99% of computer users, they have no and in making it at all. Most of our knowledge is basically “it’s a magic lightbox that’s magical.” I mean, imagine being sent back to the year 1500 and trying to explain how a laptop works. You can’t. It’s just so . . . weird.
And that’s just computers, something we recognize as complex. What about - I don’t know - pencils? I couldn’t manufacture a pencil on my own. That would require finding the exact graphite blend, encasing it in wood I cut down, putting a shiny yellow coat of paint on it, and making a rubber tip attached with pressed metal. None of which I have the faintest idea of how to do.
A lot of modern life is magic… You want fresh strawberrys on the table at Christmas? Just pick them up at the grocery… Clean water? Turn on the kitchen tap. Travel 100 miles to visit a friend and be back home the same day!? Easypeasy… Magic.
I don’t know how my Grandmothers lived through Texas summers… Cooking over a woodfire,washing clothes in a huge tub of boiling water in the front yard while wearing dresses to the ground and sleeves over the wrist. Thank you AC
Ooohh! I want one! I want one!
A few years ago I went with some friends to the Oregon Steam Up just north of Salem. In the afternoon, they had a parade of trucks, tractors, other farm equipment and such. A lot of those vehicles were huge and yet, for the most part, they were eerily quiet. How can they do that? And why can’t (or won’t) they do they with gas and diesel engines (especially diesel engines) today?
The simplicity of the steam engine design is great. The average farmer with a little know-how could do most repairs himself. If he couldn’t do it, there was probably a fellow down the road who could.
Love the styling, too. Some of the early century tractors were designed to look like the roadsters of the day, but even the simplest of engines are like works of art to me.
If you’re in the Salem area at the end of July or the beginning of August, you should check out the Steam Up. I think you’ll find it well worth the admission. I probably won’t be able to go in the next few years so you will have earned my envy if you do.
Too late for edit: Probably should have added that it wouldn’t hurt to have a strong farmhand or two around to help lift the heavy bits.
Bill Whittle wrote an interesting essay in which he compared ancient Egypt to the modern world:
As you’ve said, in the end you may realize just how amazing a lot of modern life is.
Thank you for pointing out that essay. He says things much better than I.
I’ve been reading “Dies the Fire” by S.M.Stirling… Frightning
Anything with gears…I love to watch them turn
Typewriters…I’m fascinated with every part of them. I really love the manual ones
Holograms.
I’m both fascinated by how they work (I’ve read many descriptions of it and can kind of intellectually understand it but certainly don’t really grok it), and also the fact that they’ve existed for so long as nothing but a niche product. If you’d told someone in 1920 that it was possible to take 3D photos that could be printed on flat paper they would say “awesome!”. If you told them that almost no one would ever do so, they would be baffled and disappointed.
I am fascinated by holograms, too. I remember when there were stores that sold fantastic large elaborate holograms. I couldn’t afford one, but I went many times just to view them.
I get a kick out of stereograms, too. Once I bring the image up I’m even able to look around the picture without losing the 3D perspective. The way it tricks my brain seems like magic to me.
Sunbeam brand self-lowering toasters. I was fascinated by the ones my folks had back in the sixties and seventies (I think the first was from the early fifties if not before). I found one at a yard sale back around '00 or '01 and still use it.
I also really liked my dad’s fancy, early Polaroid camera equipment. It seemed so magical back then.
I have always been fascinated with cement trucks…the way the cement mixes as you drive. And for that matter, cement…amazing. One minute it’s goop, a few hours later it’s a sidewalk
Air conditioning. I love air conditioning. I need air conditioning. Yes, I am a heat wimp.