I DO NOT GET IT!!

  I just don't. Have human beings changed so much so quickly, that we are ready to consign our entire selves - physical, inner selves, moral selves, our thinking selves and all that makes us humans into the mechanical hands of a robot?  A robot. That same toy that we played with, walking with stiff limbs, speaking in a funny voice. OK. Today, they are more advanced in their construction, and some have even discarded the physical representation for a disembodied voice and a made-up picture to match that voice. Virtual body. Real body. Disembodied voice or with intonation intact. The choice should be obvious, yet people discard the real and opt for the fake. It remains a hyped-up tool and toy even as we gift it with more permission to intrude into our lives, make our decisions for us and even compete with us as we cheer it on!  I do not get it.

Yesterday I watched two segments on a tv news show wherein two men chose a voice and a face, as guide, moral arbiter, stock adviser, best friend, even girlfriend. More bizarre, one man had a real flesh and blood girlfriend who liked his fake for it spared her some of the more disagreeable moments. Hmmm. Weird, very much so. Again, I do not get it. What is the matter with us?     

It's bad enough when our children, grandchildren sit side by side and text each other. It's bad enough when our kids have their social life revolve around devices into which they type things. Not even speak anymore. It is simply a preparation for the human race to disappear as our voices are taken and implanted in some virtual head program and voila! No physical messiness of life.  A talking machine   talking to another. Humans becoming ever more replaceable, edging ever closer to the state of   endangered species. We have already increased that possibility by poisoning our environment, destroying ecosystems without a backwards look, killing each other, refusing to correct our faults. and persisting in hating each other.  I just don't get it.  

I can understand some of it. It's funny when we speak to Alexa, even try to get funny or new responses. Even scold her for being slow. However, her responses are limited and repetitive. No one mistakes her or similar voices as real, as substitutes for a flesh and blood human. They are information retrievers and capable of robotic tasks. So, what are we doing? And why?  

One day, perhaps even now in some secret lab, someone is creating or close to creating an AI more   powerful, cleverer, more coldly calculating and far more efficient than a human could ever be. Add inevitable changes, multiply exponentially, and imagine the resultant world. And all out of our control, for we already have ceded control in many areas at present. Some of the consequences are already here and we complain without understanding what they portend for the future- for tomorrow, even possibly later today. Place an order, pay a bill, speak to a chatbot as you try to return an unsatisfactory item. 

Online form with unclear directions? Good luck!   Try to amend an answer. Nope. Try to get a person to help deal with it. Nope. Live persons are practically extinct online. What remains online for us are the proofs of the foolishness and the errors of judgment during teenage years, along with the stupidities of first jobs.  Always there to be resurrected as one applies for a position, for a mortgage, etc. Always there waiting to come back and bite you in the rear. Munch!! There is nothing anymore that we can erase, amend and atone for   without somebody knowing about it. Heavy pressure upon the shoulders of those who cannot always be ready, even capable, of thinking and behaving wisely and well.  And don't we all love those warnings re the recording of a conversation - so uh oh, better take down the temperature or else! 

Don't get me started on the uselessness of the responders when you can finally get through to them. It is then that your frustration grows heavily apace. What a waste of time, you think. Correctly so, for these responders are incapable of resolving your issues. There is no eye contact, as all that is there are voices. Only voices. So frustrating is the entire experience that you find yourself actually wishing for that chat bot. There is little to no possibility of productive conversation, for the language barrier is too often insurmountable. Either they do not speak English, or their English is heavily accented and understanding a broken bridge. The idioms of modern English, the idioms   indecipherable for these hapless responders even as intonations fly right over their heads. You emerge from this experience, soaking wet, totally frustrated. And the problem remains as you so deeply wish for a chat bot at that moment.  Venting is limited as the word "recording" circles inside your head. 

Thus, the case of many people hating the virtual voices, the disembodiment of people and the growing difficulty of just asking for and getting someone who has the knowledge and the ability. to give you a valid answer. Perhaps even a satisfactory solution.  Maybe, but why have we allowed such a system to proliferate when it is so egregiously not working!!  I just do not get it. Why have we allowed, even encouraged this situation?

Grrr, goes my mouth as I relive some of the rather annoying moments, including one yesterday.

I do not get it.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

 Surely there are better ways. There has to be. 

Unti then, we vent - safely and satisfactorily, 'That is it for today, but there is always

On the morrow.