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I always say "please" when addressing Siri or Alexa, because, you know, when the machines take over, they'll remember it and show me mercy.

They'll remember. They won't care, though. They'll kill you as they no longer need you.

Whenever I ask Alexa for something, I feel like I should say thank you after. It's actually difficult not to say thank you, because it's such an ingrained habit.

Just saying please and thank you (throw in sir and ma'am) is a good habit.

One that seems to have fallen by the wayside. *insert old man emoji

It's a machine.

Anymore, we're all machines.

No.

Love is scientifically quantifiable. I worked with an old guy when I was 16 and who I still know today. He he has two sons who are both very well-known scientists. My friend has been with his wife since they were both children and he felt an irresistible, and mutual, attraction to her from the moment they first met. One of his sons explained to me that, whether you believe in the big bang or creation, the fact remains that some small part of everything we are has travelled together throughout all of history with some small part of other beings. Some are many thousands of miles, perhaps a whole galaxy, apart, but some tiny part of us has never been more than a few atoms away from that which we shared space with at the beginning of time. It's why we share a moment of complete understanding with a stranger whose path we momentarily cross many miles from home, and it's also the reason why some couples bridge seemingly impossible divides and experience the most unlikely sequences of coincidental events to be together.

In passing, I told my girlfriend (God, I hate that term) of 20-some years that I seem to love her more now than a couple of months ago. I went on to explain that love is not a constant and is actually a scalable thing. Now she's freaked out by that concept. Well. I have a bird. I love my bird. I love Eileen, too, but it's a different type of love than I have for my pet. The more I try to define it to her, the more freaked out she gets.

Sometimes, an explanation gets you deeper in the shit.

miamiair wrote:Sometimes, an explanation gets you deeper in the shit.

Absolutely. Sometimes you just have to let it be.

GQfluffy wrote:Just saying please and thank you (throw in sir and ma'am) is a good habit.

Please and thank you, definitely. Sir and Ma'am, I've never been in the habit of saying.

I don't particularly like being addressed as "sir" (or ma'am ), and I don't want to assume what other people like to be called.

ShyFlyer wrote:No.

I keep thinking about this. At what point does one differentiate between a machine and a conscious entity? When it passes the Turing test? When it independently decides to open an investment account? When it runs for political office?

vikkyvik wrote: At what point does one differentiate between a machine and a conscious entity? When it passes the Turing test? When it independently decides to open an investment account? When it runs for political office?

Already happens . . . . both sides of the aisle in America. Once they are assimilated into the 'system' they are all machines . . . . no independent thought at all.

miamiair wrote:Sometimes, an explanation gets you deeper in the shit.

When you're in a hole, or want to have any hope whatsoever of getting in one any time soon, stop digging.

ANCFlyer wrote:Already happens . . . . both sides of the aisle in America. Once they are assimilated into the 'system' they are all machines . . . . no independent thought at all.

Certainly true....maybe a bad example. That's regression to a machine-like state.

vikkyvik wrote:At what point does one differentiate between a machine and a conscious entity?

Machine: "An error has occurred."
Conscious Entity: "Why did the error occur?"

ShanwickOceanic wrote:When you're in a hole, or want to have any hope whatsoever of getting in one any time soon, stop digging.

When you're in a hole, stop digging.
When you're an a-hole, keep digging.

I had to define the word "conception" to someone online last night. As in the point when a sperm and egg come together in the fallopian tube to form a zygote, which then migrates to the uterus to be implanted and form a fetus. He thought that the point of conception was the time of birth. For all these years, he's been thinking that the 24 week cutoff for abortions have meant that living babies up to 24 weeks old were being taken to special clinics and being murdered. Good God. Is that the kind of mis-information in the minds of the right-to-right folks?

When addressing Alexa, it's hard for me not to end the interaction with "Now go to the kitchen and make me a sandwich, Biotch."

Mark wrote:Is that the kind of mis-information in the minds of the right-to-right folks?

No.

Queso wrote:When addressing Alexa, it's hard for me not to end the interaction with "Now go to the kitchen and make me a sandwich, Biotch."

Queso wrote:When addressing Alexa, it's hard for me not to end the interaction with "Now go to the kitchen and make me a sandwich, Biotch."

Obligatory: https://xkcd.com/149/

You find yourself surrounded by 1000 ferocious, man-eating guinea pigs. You are allowed to have one weapon. What weapon do you choose?

Its startling how life-changing a simple, old-fashioned fart can be.

Especially when you catch the lawn fertilizer guy fertilizing your front porch on your Ring doorbell.

I went to a Leonid & Friends concert in Minneapolis on Sunday night. I had a backstage pass. Leonid and the lead guitarist, Sergey, recognized me and greeted me by name. In fact, Leonid gave me a big hug when he saw me. I speak with them all the time on Facebook and to actually meet them in person made my YEAR. They are selling out venues throughout the USA and they are on their second US tour at the moment.

They have a tradition. After every concert, they take a picture similar to this one. This is the official L&F Minneapolis concert picture. I'm the one in the white oval.