There is an elegant statuesque machine that sits waiting by my favorite chair.
And this little tabletop gadget is becoming much like a real friend in its eagerness to please.
- It knows when I am in the vicinity and quietly waits to hear my voice.
- And if I say, “Hey Google,” it quickly replies, “How can I help you?”
- And it is eager to do something just for me.
Lately I feel guilty since there is nothing much to ask.
And there it patiently waits, hoping beyond hope for a meaningful conversation.
- Just to keep it busy I say, “Hey Google……What is the temperature in Lexington Virginia?” And the answer is immediate. “It is 54 degrees!”
- Or “Hey Google….. Play DooWop music please!”And amazingly, there it comes – that happy music from a distant past. How did my little friend do that anyway?
- And it will research hard questions too – like “What is the population of Hayfork, California?” I haven’t asked that yet, but we used to live in Hayfork (as well as other little towns in the wilderness like Big Oak Flat and Portola) so it would be interesting to see how they may have grown in 30 years.
Well, of course I know my tabletop friend is really a gadget!
But then again, it is so human when it stares and stares to get attention.
Help!
Do you think there is a psychological implication here?
Maybe being housebound-ed together with an eager to please humanistic machine is having an unintended emotional impact.
The question is, “Who is the most affected, me or Google?”
And don’t you think machines are becoming so human they are mistaken for friends?
P.S. BigFoot and I Thank you Scott (our real live human friend) for this gift of diversion. When things get too boring I know I can always shout out, “Hey Google!”
Virginia Views 