The Company We Keep

Voice recognition software.  It’s a common enough experience today.  I remember when it wasn’t.  Let me give you a couple of examples.

Johnny Carson (maybe you’re too young) was the “king of late night television” for more years than I know.  One night, he was discussing a new car that would tell you when your door was open.  Should you start your car when one of the doors was not closed all the way, a voice would replace the ‘old ding-ding warning sound’ with the words, “Your door is ajar!”

Although he was thoroughly impressed, he said he'd never buy the car.  It seems that this primitive assistant spoke only in it's native language, that being Japanese!  A video search was not successful but this line still makes me laugh.



Many years later, I had my first experience with the ‘talking car’.  Reluctantly I tried it.  You have to understand that when I grew up, people who looked like they're talking to themselves in public needed help.  And here I was, all alone in a conversation with my car!  Oh for the gift of darkly-tinted windows!

But anyway, I set it up, did the exercise to help the software recognize my voice, and in a very clear modulated tone said, “Audio – ON.”  It worked!  I heard the car repeat the instruction in her voice, “Audio On.” The radio started playing without touching a thing.

After a while, I decided silence would be preferable.  So, in keeping with this ‘new’ way of doing things, I said, “Audio – OFF”.  The car responded with, “Audio – ON.”  OK, I must not have spoken clearly enough.  But, when vehicle continued to over-ride my instructions three more times, I mentioned to this lady that should she refuse to obey again, I would change her into a man.  Story short, that’s what happened.

Today, there are so many ‘assistants’ for cars, computers, phones, tablets and home appliances that a person probably knows a few of them by name!  Are you ‘friends’ with any of these?

• Alexa
• Siri
• Cortana
• Amazon Echo
• Hey Athena
• Lucinda
• Google assistant
• DataBot
• Dragon 

This partial list was compiled when I picked up my cell phone this morning and said, “Hey Google.  What are the most widely used digital personal assistants?”

I was curious so I didn't stop there!  When I asked Google, “How do I talk to God?”,  I was sent to a website called wikiHow which gave me an article called 3 Ways to Talk to God.  I briefly looked through a list of 7 (7? - I thought it said 3) pointers ending with the statement that all of this is found in the Book of Mormon.   I’m now wondering if there’s more I should know about my personal assistant!

So then, three things.

1. I’m still more likely to type my inquiries into a search bar than talk to the device.  
2. I’m still happier talking to people than digital personal assistants.  
3. I’m delighted that I need not use a personal assistant to talk with my God.

Cortana.  Please publish.