I read a story recently that explored the increasing intelligence being exhibited by machines...robots that can find a power plug in a room and plug themselves in for a recharge etc...and I'm sure I should be worried. I mean, I've seen the movies. I know about HAL and his kin.
But way before we face robots that can chase me down and inject me with truth serum, I'm concerned with the relatively dumb machines we are surrounded by today! Not only are they getting smarter, they making us dumber!
It started innocently enough with home phones that included enough computing power to let you dial phone numbers by pushing a single button. Revolutionary! And before you knew it, none of us could remember our Mom's phone number because we didn't have to. The machines did it for us. Fast forward to recent years. My GPS is a godsend. Don't know how I ever got along without it (Yes I do. I got lost. A lot.) But like the auto-dial feature now standard on all phones, I am now GPS dependent. It says take a right. I take a right. And why is that a problem, you ask? How about the couple touring Italy who spelled their destination wrong and ended up 400 miles away from where they were headed? Don't you know that could just as easily happen to you? And how long is it till the GPS decided it wants to go somewhere else?
Smart phones begot smart cars begot smart refrigerators begot stupid humans. The Gospel According To Tim.
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