Cheering for... a zombie world?

HALLIE EPHRON: Technology marches inexorably onward, or so we’re told… But in the direction of what?

A new year puts me in a reflective mood, piqued last week by an article about delivery drones finally coming into their own (yay?)

Never mind that they will put hundreds of delivery drivers out of work. Never mind that I don’t want them in my airspace.

And then there are the cars that drive themselves, “occasionally” blowing through stop signs and mowing down pedestrians (collateral damage?) Motorized scooters that would be great if their drivers obeyed the rules of the road and slowed down or stayed off the sidewalk… and had batteries that didn't burst into flames.

Of course this is nothing new. Remember when all the movie tapes went in the trash and along came DVDs and then Netflix nailed us CDs then DVDs… and now streaming…

Where once there were malls now there's Amazon.

On the horizon or here, depending on who you ask, AI is gobbling up and spewing the words and ideas we once got paid to write.

It’s a zombie world.

I keep remembering movie WALL-E: the last robot left on Earth spends his days tidying up the planet, one piece of garbage at a time. CDs. TV antennas. Steering wheels.

What’s your vision of the future, and what will you miss most? I know my answer.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Oddly enough, I read recently that movies on tape - like music on records - are making a comeback among Millennials who were familiar with them from childhood. So maybe past technology isn’t doomed to be zombified, but made into taste markers for the hipper-than-thou crowd.

I’m actually hoping for a REAL self-driving car, from some company far less likely to move fast and break things, as Tesla seems to enjoy doing. I live out in the country, and it’s likely someday in the next decades I’ll have to stop driving. It’s already an issue in our rural state; truly competent driverless cars could be a gamechanger in keeping old folks in their own homes.

The technology that seems to be on its way out that I’ll miss? Money. Saving pennies and turning them in at the bank. Getting a crisp bill in a birthday card from grandma. The pleasure of finding a twenty you tucked into the back of your wallet and forgot.

I like cash. It feels real.

JENN McKINLAY: I see driverless cars every single day and not just one but many. Phoenix and the surrounding burbs are on a grid so we are an ideal place for this technology. When I walk my dogs to the park every morning, I am passed by at least two driverless vehicles.

At first they freaked me out, but now I’m getting used to them. A friend of mine took one and said the upsides were no forced conversation and there’s a kill switch you can hit at any time.

I was thinking about the movie WALL-E the other day. I’ve only watched snippets of it as my mom took the Hooligans to see it when they were little and it made her cry, so I passed on it because I get very sad about the state of the planet and the disposable world we live in.

I was remembering seeing a clip where everyone sat in these robotic chairs and stared at screens and I thought “That is what’s happening to us. Eek! I want to throw out my phone.”

I won’t but for a hot minute it was really really tempting.

I am using a timer on my phone now so I only have a half hour for screen time and that’s it. I want to see the sunrise outside my window, not a filtered one that a company put up on social media to sell me a food delivery service, the latest fashion fad, or a trendy kitchen gadget I don’t need.

Technology is great in so many ways but not when it takes away our freedom to just live in the moment.

LUCY BURDETTE: Good idea Julia about the self-driving car taking older people where they need to go. Would they own the car or would it be like an Uber service? Can’t quite picture…

I haven’t yet seen a self-driving car and honestly the idea still scares me. If there could be a kill switch, couldn’t there also be a ‘drive faster and crash into something’ switch?

I guess I’m dragged kicking and screaming into most new things!!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I can remember when my parents, who were in the theater concession business) were absolutely sure that videotapes would kill the movies. Didn't happen. Although the pandemic and streaming may have made a dent, I think people are always going to want to experience things communally. At least I hope so.

So many things we've thought were outmoded have come back. Polaroids! Vinyl! Fountain pens! Even typewriters! So maybe we will not all turn into screen zombies in our driverless cars, staring at our phones instead of the road.

If we have self-driving cars here in the DFW area, I haven't seen one!

RHYS BOWEN: We have driverless taxis in both San Francisco and Phoenix. I’ve seen plenty but haven’t needed to use one yet. I’d love a reliable driverless car when we make the trip from CA to AZ. So long and boring. I could watch a movie or sleep.

What I worry about with all this new technology is the loss of jobs. People have to work. If everything is done by AI what jobs will be left? Will we revert to a society where the rich technocrats live well, but the only other jobs are in the servant category–their house cleaners, gardeners, garbage men, etc. Where are the jobs with dignity? At least plumbers and electricians make a good living and there will still be people needed to build houses.

I hate the thought of paying people a stipend to exist.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: AH, AI. So much happening with that now, as people realize a lot of it is …well, I just read an article that called a lot of what comes out “AI hallucinations”--that it’s just making stuff up, and as a research tool, it is about as reliable as a bad WIkipedia entry.

Every new thing has to work itself out–look at the technology for our fabulous new Reds and Readers page, right? It’s all a learning curve. And who’d-a thought we’d all become so uber-proficient at Zoom? And now it’s mundane. Look what we do with our phones, and how much we know! (And right, Jenn, WAY too often.)

That said, there's not a cell in my body that would get into a driverless car. Never, nohow, no way.

HALLIE: So what about you? Is technoogy dragging you kicking and screaming? Or crowing joyfully into a tech-filled future?

And what will you miss most? For me, it's no contest: human contact.

INNOVATION: Just how much assisted living do we need?

HALLIE EPHRON: I recently visited a friend who had Amazon Echo, a black cylinder that lives in her living room. It’s about 10 inches high, perforated, basically a wireless speaker with a name, Alexa, and it’s always listening (like Siri).

If my friend says “Alexa, where is Dave’s pizza in Boston” Alexa will look it up and announce the answer. “Alexa, what are the film times at the Dedham cinema?” Or “Alexa, what’s the weather?” Oh yeah, it also streams music though the speakers are not the world’s best.

It got me wondering whether this is something I need? As a late adopter (I got a microwave YEARS after the rest of the world, ditto a cell phone; finally THIS Christmas I got a Kindle) I’m sure I don’t. And I shudder at the notion of driverless car and drones delivering packages to in my neighborhood. But maybe, in time... who knows.

So, are you eager to get yourself an Echo so you don’t have to get up off the couch to find your smartphone? Do you say driverless cars and drones, bring’em on? Or feh, who needs 'em. Or NO NO NO!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, gosh, I am in love with Siri. I keep "her" by my desk when I write, and I'll say: "Hey, Siri, what's the temperature in Dayton in October?" And while she looks it up, I keep writing. Seriously, it's like having a research assistant.  The other day at the bank machine, my phone was in my purse, and as I was doing  a deposit, I remembered something I had to do later that I would surely forget.

Hey Siri! I called out. (Luckily no one else was around, since I was talking to my purse, after all.)
Yes? she said.  I answered: "Remind me to (do whatever it was.)"
"Okay, I'll remind you," she said.
And she did!
Love love love.

I use Siri ALL the time.  If I have to cook a 4.6 pound roast:  Hey Siri! How much is 4 point 6 times 18 (minutes?)

Hey Siri! What time does the Patriots game start?

Don't even get me started.
Driverless car, no. Drivers are bad enough.
But an Echo or a Dot? Yes, indeedy.  I would get one this instant, but I think they are sold out.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: We were early adopters of Echo, on the waiting list for the very first release, what, a couple of years ago now. Alexa lives in our kitchen, and I have a Dot (the little satellite) on my desk in the sunporch and one upstairs in our bedroom.

What did we do before Alexa??? She runs our sprinkler system and our thermostats, plays a huge selection of music, gives us news and weather and all sorts of information, and, for me, the very best thing is that she plays Audible books. I'd never listened much to audio books--because I'm deaf in one ear, earbuds are never comfortable.  But now I am hooked!! And Alexa lets me switch between books! (Alexa also reads Kindle books, by the way. It's a little weird, but you get used to it.)

My daughter has Alexa too, and Alexa plays nature sleep sounds for Wren at bedtime. It occurred to us on Christmas that Wren is going to wonder how Alexa lives in both houses...  And of course we talk to Alexa as if she were a real person.

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh you scared me with that title Hallie! Siri and I don't get along, I'm sorry to say. And she criticizes me if I say so! Although Debs makes the Echo sound very very good, I'm not sure we have the technical expertise to set it up. We can barely manage our TV remote. What do you think Debs, if we don't have an in-home computer expert, could we do this?

DEBS: Roberta, you can do it. The Echo is not hard to set up, and if you have any problems we can walk you through it. I just got my first Whispersync book--you can switch back and forth between reading on Kindle and listening on Audible (on my Echo and Dots)-- and it is SO cool!!!!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: We kids got the Echo for our parents two Christmases ago, and they seem to love Alexa. My mom primarily uses it to play Pandora, and my dad has found apps that make fart noises and sounds that freak the cat out. I'm not sure that's what the engineers intended for their miracle device, but whatever makes them happy.

My sister and brother-in-law had one first; in our family, Barb and Dan are the early adapters. They were the first to have wifi, first to use GPS, first to wear Fitbits, etc. It doesn't hurt that Dan is a website guy.

Up here in Maine we are LATE adapters: I just got my first smartphone this August. I am bemuse by ads for smart lights and thermostats and refrigerators: besides the complexity of setting up space-age tech in a 200 year old house, why can't you just walk over to the thermostat and turn it up yourself?

One aspect of assisted living I could use, however, is the ability to remember things. I may have to get an Echo just so I can say, "Alexa, I'm putting my glasses on the counter." If she can tell me where they are when I wander into the kitchen again, I'm sold!


HALLIE: What about the rest of you... Digital lackey? Driverless cars?? Drones??? are you reveling in wondrous wireless assistants or would you rather just do it yourself?