Wednesday, May 16, 2012

SIRI: A Sign of the Impending End of Civilization

We are very close to no longer needing to speak to any real person, to look anyone in the eye. SIRI and its soon to follow upgrades are making the alone experience less lonely, but at a great cost: our social skills will eventually become eroded to the extent that we will not be able to decipher body language, which relies on a constant correction process that compares nonverbal cues with verbal ones. I fear our future. With robotic responses in pleasant, even sexual tones, what will we want with real people? We will no longer be required to interact in any way that is meaningful. We will become quintessentially narcissistic and not be able to tolerate anything other than "yes." Am I being too dramatic here?

We may even be able to invent robotic people with lifelike skin that obviates any human contact. As in the movie Surrogates, we will lay in bed and not come outside anymore, breathe fresh air, and will eventually, perhaps even quickly, become deeply, deeply depressed. Did you know that depression rates have escalated every decade following the 1940's here in America?

If I'm being honest and not kind, I think America is on the way down. We will fight tooth and nail to stop it, mind you, but we have evolved into overusing, over-coddled, overweight dullards. I may move to Sweden or Denmark or maybe Australia. I was going to move there in my early twenties, but I chickened out. I think I'm too old to do it now. My sister and her husband, folks I think very highly of, threaten to move to Nova Scotia every once in a while, every time the U.S. fucks up in yet another big way that always seems to trample the average guys. It's been happening a lot lately.



1 comment:

  1. You speak the truth! I would be long gone if I weren't too old, and yet this very evening we are going to yet another meeting to protest the basing of deafening fighter jets in our city. The Air Force is set to trample the little guy yet again.

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