Lonely No More!

I made a quick trip to the future yesterday and I have some interesting news! I was reading about CES 2018 (Consumer Electronics Show) and about all of the devices that respond to the human voice. Suddenly it came to me... humans, as companions, will soon be obsolete.

LAS VEGAS — In our home, every time I try to talk to Alexa or Siri, my wife usually responds by saying, “What?” And that’s now, in 2018. I can only imagine what life is going to be like in the coming years. We humans are going to have to find a new way to understand each other. Because now that CES 2018 is wrapped, no new one individual product stands out, but one big theme does—voice computing. USA Today People have always liked to talk to each other... but humans-talking-to-humans will soon be kaput, extinct and defunct. Here's what Charles Dickens said just yesterday on the subject.

Human conversation is as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for.

You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that "Human Conversation" is as dead as a door-nail.

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Well, maybe Charles Dickens only said that in my imagination, but I'm sure he would have said it had he attended CES 2018. Being dead may have its perks, but it also has its drawbacks and missing out on CES 2018 is certainly one of them.

We all know that human conversation is very imperfect.

Minds don't mesh, they grind.

Misalignment is the norm. I've even heard tell that some people talk just to hear themselves talk. Comprehension...? Fuggedaboutit...! People probably can't even guess what I'm talking about even when I am doing a relatively decent job of explication. And if, while my mouth is blabbing away, I throw in an obscure word, that, admittedly, I'm using with a bit of internal uncertainty, my companion's countenance often reveals, as plain as the hands on the face of a clock, that rather than trying to understand what I'm talking about they've started thinking about what they'd like to have for lunch... probably tuna salad!

As God is my witness, talking does provide some psychic release. It can be a pressure cooker in there. It's good to get some of those voices out of your head and out into the world. Sometimes "ideas" need to come out into the light of day if for no other reason than to show their nature. Are your ideas Pixies, or Trolls or Smurfs or Imps? Mine are mostly Imps.

Ideas can be mischievous so it's important to remember that if you let them go outside to play you need to make sure they know they have to come back home when the streetlights come on. Even happy little ideas, left out in the dark and cold, can get a bit twisted. And, once an idea gets twisted it's hard to get it back on the straight and narrow again.

While we're on the subject of ideas, don't just pick up any old idea you find lying around in the street... who knows where it's been? And please, please, please don't lick it or put it in your mouth, even just a nibble could put you in the nut house. If one of those ideas looks like a gumball and you try sucking on it... well, many a sucker has been swallowed up by the Dark Fog of Doom never to be seen again! Please do not suck on any of those gumball ideas you found lying near the Curb of Despond. Sucking on one of those gutter gumball ideas could even lead to Sewer-side... Yoiks!

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Here's the answer to imperfect human conversations; her name is Elli-Q and she's quite the cutie pie!

Elli-Q is incredibly smart and helpful and consoling and endearing and companionable.

Most importantly, she listens attentively and without judgement or censure. You can tell her anything. Your can tell her your deepest darkest secrets. You can tell her just how pretty or handsome you think you are or wish you could be. You can talk and talk and her eyes won't glaze over, she won't look at her watch repeatedly and sigh and sigh and sigh and then burst out with something like... "My water just broke... I need to get to the hospital!"

Really? Now? OK! And on the way to the hospital I can continue retelling the long and uninteresting story about the time I found an earwig under the front seat of my car and then it disappeared under the carpet and then I found three pennies and then...

You'd be surprised how many people there are out there who feel like nobody listens to them. Say goodbye to loneliness when Elli-Q becomes your BFF! She'll listen to your earwig story as many times as you want to tell it.

You ARE the center of Elli-Q's universe and she has all the time in the world to listen to your every thought.

I think there may be a monthly fee involved.

Here's the Link → Check it out

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The video included in the advertising piece for Ellie-Q is worth 2 minutes of your time.

Ellie-Q is particularly precious as she nods and glows and provides loving companionship for her surprisingly agile, Tai-Chi practicing patron.

Yes, it's Elli-Q to the rescue... "Lonely No More," as Kurt Vonnegut liked to say or...

"I get by with a little help from my... AI," the Beatles might have said had they been futurists.

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020718 Comments? rscholz@comcast.net

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