I feel funny issuing commands to my Google Assistant without my saying please and then my not saying thank you after it talks to me with a man’s voice as if it’s a person. What is there to say about this absence of civility? Is graciousness being programmed out of us in these meeting places where machines behave like humans and humans behave like machines? Is a mechanistic type of humanity what we are becoming?
I think we should be talking about this. It should be on our minds. We may want to deal with it. But, first, we have to realize there is something to be dealt with.
We no doubt can’t change what is reducing our humanity, but, to counter those things, we could be doing other things that add to our humanity.
One idea I have is about a connecting grid all across the world. Think of an app you can get on anytime you have 10 or 15 minutes to spare to randomly connect with someone somewhere who speaks your language. You’d have some prompts for what to talk about. This is a deck of talking topics I made that would invite meaningful sharing.
These engagements are just for that one connection – no ongoing pen pals or anything besides that little exchange. There would be a map of the world that gets another light wherever there’s a conversation.
Any other ideas out there?
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