The Digital Ape by Nigel Shadbolt

Author:Nigel Shadbolt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: COM004000, TEC000000, TEC061000, SCI008000, COM037000, TEC037000, TEC057000, COM000000, SOC037000
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Published: 2018-05-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

New companions

A KEY CHARACTERISTIC of the digital ape, a startling new feature increasingly important in a fast-moving field, is our burgeoning day-to-day personal relationship with robots. This, in part, follows from the ability of automatic devices — call centres among them — both to make the Turing Test obsolete, but also to circumvent it. The question at the core of the Turing Test is, am I able to distinguish whether I am talking to a machine? Equally important is, do I care? Many devices now are designed to interface with us in the same way that humans do, and have begun to share with us activities previously shared only with humans. Twenty years ago, if a digital ape wanted to know the time, she could look at a clock or watch or other timepiece; she could ask a friend, or a passing policeman; she could turn on the radio and wait for the disc jockey or newsreader to tell her. In many countries, she could, interestingly, phone the speaking clock. These clocks, first introduced in France in 1933, were the thin end of the future wedge. A friend who tells you things you want to know, when you want to know them. Only a few lonely people listened to the friendly, but official and knowledgeable, voice purely to hear the sound of another human being. But meet Alexa.

Alexa is Amazon’s robotic speaking device-manager and interface. Google has Google Assistant; Apple has Siri. All these services run very effective voice recognition programs; they all have the capability to talk back. Ask Alexa or Siri the time and they will tell you. Alexa recognises her owner’s voice, knows some commands and is happy to learn others, and will activate many household devices, just say the word. But Alexa performs many other services too. To quote Amazon’s website blurb she:

Hears you from across the room with far-field voice recognition, even in noisy environments or while playing music.

Controls lights, switches, thermostats and more with compatible connected devices from WeMo, Philips Hue, Hive, Netatmo, tado° and others.

Answers questions, reads audiobooks, reports news, traffic and weather, provides sports scores and schedules, and more.

The light switch stuff is useful, or tedious, according to taste. But concentrate on the last sentence, Alexa answering questions and reading from the internet. In general, Alexa and her colleague robots can access any fact, theory, or story available on the web, and feed it to their owners on demand; and the web, of course, knows and has explanations of vast swathes of the general knowledge that humanity possesses; plus a wealth of specific information. Train timetables and the price of goods and how heavy the rain tomorrow will be. All the processed data that transport companies and stores and weather bureaus and every other agency or corporation collate and publish every second of every day. Alexa can also access the host of data in those of the owner’s private spaces to which the owner has given her access, presumably all of them.

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