If you would please direct your attention to the image above, which I pulled from CNN this evening around 7pm CST, and let it sink in for a moment. This was taken from a CNN story describing how the automated Apple iPhone "personality" Siri once responded to inquiries such as, "I've been raped," or, "My husband is abusing me," with an apparently unconcerned, "I don't know what you mean," or, "I don't get it." After some...what would you call it, furor, Apple has changed the response as noted above.
Although I'm sure the other offended bloggers and Facebook knights will shred this to death, I'd like to make some different observations, which I hope will be useful to time travelers as they look forward to this disaster of modern plastic proportions.
In what kind of world do rape victims make serious inquiries to their phones? I'm not suggesting there is a right or wrong answer, or that this is some rhetorical, farcical question, I mean I'm really asking because we apparently live in this world. Perhaps rape victims don't actually talk to their phones about being raped and just use them to "Google it!" instead; or, perhaps rape victims may very well only feel comfortable asking their phones about such things.
But...telephones, really? Am I the very last human on Earth that finds our relationship with technology so strange; disturbing, even? Or perhaps I'm the last adult in America that doesn't find entertainment value in these kinds of mindless articles about a computer program that just isn't "feeling" enough. Isn't it strange to anyone the kinds of things our culture values? And I ask myself, is this simply a paid advertisement by Apple to continue promoting their line of "smart" phones, which, evidently, must also console rape victims and offer guidance?
So while you're reading this little snippet of mine, thought up and typed by me, imagine - there will come a day, very soon (it already has in newsprint) when people will no longer need other human interaction. Just pull up your device and spill your guts. It's ok. Siri's here now. And she's listening.