I started writing this post innocently enough just to report on the  newest tech gadgets that are available and have become ‘useful’ in assisting us with our ‘day-to-day’ chores. Those of you who follow tech4boomers know that I pretty much give you the pros and cons of the ‘experts’ advice about new devices.

As I think about these newest, ‘cute’, robotic gadgets, I am reminded about 2001: A Space Odyssey and the famous HAL 9000, the spaceship’s computer, which is capable of speech, speech recognition, automated reasoning,  and a host of other capabilities. For those of you who don’t already know, HAL 9000 malfunctions and decides inappropriately to kill the astronauts!  Yes! It’s a pretty scary film, much more so than vampires, zombies, etc. At least you may be able to handle vampires when the daylight comes.

Have you thought about how much we humans rely more and more on artificial intelligence devices to ‘help’ us out? I don’t know the last time I even looked at a map to get me somewhere, and the truth be told, in most cases if Siri takes me in the wrong direction, I am pretty much lost – LOL.  I started wondering: what are humans doing about paying attention to their increasingly all-purpose uses of  Artificial Intelligence? Continue reading →