You know, it never ceases to amaze me how people think that because one is a Trekkie they should therefore welcome all technology. I’m sorry, I cannot welcome technology that takes away jobs and I have yet to see new jobs develop because of machines that take over human cashiers, human maintained workers, human customer service… These things have gotten worse because of automation. We need the human contact and quite frankly, calling my pharmacy and getting an automated voice that won’t let you talk to a human really SUCKS! Give me a human! Give me a human with any form of customer service. Give me a human when I want information that the damn AI won’t give me. Give a human when I dial 411. Give me a human when I check out at the store! At the age of 52 let my husband keep the job he’s done for over 30 years until he retires. Don’t push him out and leave him searching for work, which BTW he’s been looking for several years now and no one has hired him so he can have a different job. So he’s stuck in a job he’s being pushed out of. Besides, human get things cleaner than a machine.
Oh the days of talking to a human when you dial 0…
However… you get a stupid AI that never understands what you really want. Maybe… if they fix the stupid AI voice to understand and function like a human being who sometimes has compassion, would be helpful, but I won’t be around for Data to help me with anything. Data would be a wonderful dreamy outcome, but it won’t happen within my lifetime. Give me a dime and let me dial 0 for information and get a human being until then.
Oh that wonderful sound…
BTW, I do appreciate that we do not have party lines any more. In many cases since the 70s we can just pick up the phone and dial the number instead of pausing to make sure no one else is on the line. I do appreciate having my own “communicator” on me at all times. I do appreciate certain modern technology, but I long for the days you turn on the TV and the last channel you were watching is on the Blub tube and you didn’t have to select an app to watch something. I do miss human contact when I need information about something or help with something or when something just needs that human touch. The unknowing, un-understanding, uncompassionate AI doesn’t cut it.