I have an antitechnology rant inspired by both the Terminator series & Arthur C Clarke's HAL from "2001". Basically, we should just give them the nuclear codes because "those damn machines" are going to kill us off anyways. The rant usually is brought on by technology arbitrarily telling us what to do. For example if I don't buckle my seat belt within the first 10 seconds I turn on the ignition, it CONTINUES to remind me every other 15 seconds until its buckled. Sometimes I just want to warm up the dang car on a cold day.
Knowing this, fellow blogger
MOFYC sent me a link to
NPR's On Point broadcast tackling/promoting/discussing Apple's new speech recognition program, Siri.
After listening to program, I am not as concerned with this technological development as one would think.
Why?
The computer program is not bossing me around because it THINKS I'm doing something wrong. Its user iniated. Its like when a person asks for my opinion (usually in regards to their photo portfolio). I won't go out of my way & give my opinion (unless its in a public venue...which entirely changes this equation). But if someone ASKS for my opinion, I have no quams in actually giving it. If they don't like what I have to say, its their dang problem.
I see this as more along the lines of Star Trek technology. We've already seen it in a lot of ways: the flip communicators, those were our cell phones from 5-10 years ago. Whenever the characters were reading a book (yes, they still did that in the 23th & 24th Centuries), they were looking at what we currently call an eReader. However I'm still waiting for the development of the transporter system (the machine disassemblies your molecules on the molecular level "beams" you some great distance away & then reassembles those disassembled molecules on the spot) because it'd save me a fortune in travel & car expenses.
Which is not to say the television writers wouldn't creates stories of technology running amok or being humans misunderstanding its application. For the most part the technology was one of benevolence. It'd help, it'd assist, it'd offer suggestion. That sorta thing.
However, I'm not saying that I have ZERO concerns about this kind of technology or our relationship to it.
Our codependency on technology is one example.
I cannot begin to tell you how many times my friends bitch when they drop & break their smart phone & god forbid, the person can't function w/ it out for a few days until they can get the new one. Or they leave the phone in another jacket & actually have to chill & do nothing for a few minutes. Or *gasp* they or the person on the other end goes into a reception dead zone (
read my letter to those particular people here).
These devices have become extensions of our own bodies. People, especially the young, are excel at playing-games/texting/whatever on their smart phones & not breaking eye contact. This is classroom challenge that I do not envy.
Corruption is another concern.
Knowing how the capitalist world runs. Once they've got you codependent on a product, they've psychologically convinced you that you cannot live without out. I repeat, they've convinced you that YOU CANNOT LEAVE WITH OUT IT.
Its like being a junkie in a lot of ways.
Give you a little preview of how (for example) the application works. But to get more, you have to pay X-amount of dollars. Soon they've persuaded you in getting a whole bunch of crap that you never would have gotten in a million years on your own. Its cleverly insidious in a lot of ways.
The philosphical question becomes do you ACTUALLY need it or do you THINK you need it?
So far I've been able to reject the smart phone lifestyle. But I cannot say it remain that way indefinitely.
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In other news...
**********This is
Zoe.
You'd never know it by the shot below but it was one of those "scattered showers" shoots. We couldn't really depend on consistent weather so we just mutually agreed to both cross our fingers & hope for the best.
Feel free to comment on any part of this entry if you so desire.
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