I am the proud (and thrilled) recipient of a new phone for Christmas. As I must have over-reported previously (according to Capt. Cook), my former phone was smart, but only semi-smart. Capt. Cook is fond of stating that had he not purchased a smart phone for me, for Christmas, I would have ruined his phone with drool.
There could be some truth to that.
My new phone has been fully functional, with me, for a week now and I am embracing what it can do with as much speed as I can muster. One of the phone's functions that I find fascinating and ultra-useful is Siri, the voice-command personal assistant. Siri is the closest thing I will ever come to for either a personal assistant or a wife. I speak, she listens and acts. It just does not get much better than that.
Or will it?
Just where will all of this hand-held technology lead us? Give our civilization another millennium, bring back Charles Darwin, and he will have a field day. Humans may well have appendages that resemble nothing like the eight fingers and two thumbs presently on our hands. It is possible we will only have a thumb and forefinger on each hand, perfectly positioned to "type" on whatever smallish device each human on the planet has been assigned from "Mother Siri".
I can foresee that Siri may be the greatest threat to planet leadership in the history of the world. Siri will control our thoughts, speech, actions, bodily functions, rate of birth and death, even deciding if each human is capable of reproduction. Siri will determine what crops are grown on the earth, how and when those crops are harvested, how they are stored, prepared, and who gets to eat them. "What will I be allowed to eat tomorrow?" Siri will answer that question with her usual perky and pleasant tonal reply.
Remember the old commercial for "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter", where Mother Nature is is humanized, she raises her hands, thunder claps and lightning flashes and she says, sternly, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!" Siri will make this ad character look like Pollyanna.
If Siri is allowed to morph at her present speed, she may well be raising the world's children, from birth until their age of consent and reason, at which time they will be programmed to be Children of the Cloud and will follow Siri to the ends of the earth......and beyond.
I realize that I am getting ahead of myself by one or two million years, by which time young whippersnappers will have designed and programmed millions of smarter Siri-replacements.
In the meantime, I have added three additional goals to my 2012 list:
1. Keep Siri busy with constructive activities
2. Write as many cursive notes as I can
3. Get regular physical therapy on my least-used three digits. They will need as much
strengthening as possible.
Ancora imparo
