| > It isn't like we've not had grand shifts before. This isn't anywhere near a grand shift - it's a clever commercial ploy to increase profits for a narrow range of businesses. > The automobile. Indoor plumbing. Electricity. Stoves and vacuum cleaners. Television, radio. The wheel - but more importantly, the axle. Sure, THEY were grand shifts that improved health, sanitation, freed up significant amounts of travel or labour time, brought education and entertainment to the masses etc. How do we classify Alex's contribution to society: "I can speak some words and receive cat litter the next day". OK, I jest - the AI behind Alexa will no doubt reap other benefits in time, some may even be societal rather than commercial. Don't get me wrong; I love gadgets and innovation - I work for an Enterprise Class storage manufacturer and spend all day working with terabyte/petabyte-scale disk and flash array setups, and stuff I can't even tell you about - but let's have some perspective here! |