Friday, January 04, 2008

Voice-activated car doohickies seem like a bad idea

by shamanic

Watching car commercials these days, I see that they're now being fully loaded with all kinds of doodads that do stuff when you tell them to do stuff. Like call people on your cell phone or play music.

I don't know about you, but I talk to myself in the car. Pretty much constantly. Sometimes I'm rehearsing poetry, but for the most part I'm just conducting conversations with myself. I'm not ashamed of it. I mean, I knock it off at red lights, so I guess I'm a little ashamed of it, but the fact that I have detailed conversations with myself whenever the mood strikes me (and it strikes me often) isn't something I'm ashamed of. I'm a good conversationalist (which I remind myself of every time I have one of these talks with myself).

All of this is to say: as I watch these ads, I think, "wow, that's a bad idea." Anybody else have a creeping fear that their automated devices will begin responding to their private moments by, for instance, calling the person you're rehearsing a conversation with?

No comments: