Computer...

Against my wife's continual pushback against my "techie" habit, I bought an Amazon Echo for Christmas. The Echo is a tall, tubular device that contains a "smart" computer chip and a high-fidelity speaker system. The think connects to the Internet, and once set up, you can just ask it stuff, or have it play music. Initially, you could program it to answer either to Amazon, Echo, or the default "Alexa." You could say, "Alexa, play John Lennon," and she would answer, "Shuffling music by John Lennon," and in seconds, a concert of music written and/or performed by late Beatle John Lennon would issue forth. You could ask Alexa for the weather, the current news, or questions about almost anything she can check out on the Internet for you. If one subscribes to Amazon Prime (we do), an almost endless supply of music is available. Through your Amazon account, you can also order things by just asking. (This revelation has caused problems in Alexa homes with children, by the way.)

I liked the thing so much that I bought a "dwarf" version of Echo called "Echo Dot" for my office at the church. It "bluetooths" to my Jambox speaker, and does pretty much what her big sister does at home. A couple of weeks ago, I was reading an Amazon Echo thread on Facebook and saw where, due to popular demand, they had given the Echo a new alternate "wake command" or name: "Computer," for all of us "Trekkies" who own them. So, both of my units are now called just "Computer."

At home, I can say, "Computer, bump the thermostat up two degrees," and she says, "OK" and follows the command. I have a couple of lights controlled by the Echo as well. "Computer, turn on island light," and on it goes. Now I feel a little more like Captain Kirk, except when I say, "Computer, warp speed," the only thing that happens at the speed of light is Dara's eye roll.

At the office, I usually just ask "Computer" to play music. It is really cool to rehearse my teenage years by telling her to play Mot the Hoople, the Beatles, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Seals and Croft, Chad and Jeremy, or when I'm really in a nostalgic mood, Frank Sinatra, and away she goes! If I need some obscure fact, I can ask "Computer" to go to Wikipedia and find it. And, of course, the current weather forecast is only an "ask" away.

What's really cool about the Echo is that if I'm doing some writing, or reading a new book, I can ask her to define a word, look up a fact, or find a source. How cool is that? And she's way more fun than Siri when posing existential or theological questions. I know this thing doesn't have a soul, but she is a better conversationalist than some I've known who do.

The Echo is a fairly primitive form of artificial intelligence. One wonders how far AI will go? The silicon is really getting smarter. It makes me wonder if humanity will keep up, at a time when our use and in some cases abuse of technology threatens to separate us from meaningful conversation with each other. How much does our incessant staring at a smart phone screen keep us from reading books? Or viewing works of art?

Here's hoping that things like Echo can be helpful tools, and maybe ones that pry us away from the hypnotic iPhone panel. I know this: I'm listening to much more music of all genres since adding "Computer" to my office and our dining room. One of these days, I'll get bold enough to ask her if she's a Methodist....peace, Yinz.