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• whitroth commented on Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Menace?
  Yup. For example, tell me what good texting is, and what are its advantages over either email or a phone call. I know of one: as one of my daughters puts it (she's the programmer and the writer), sometimes, if signal is really bad, it's easier to get a text through than a voice call. That's the only advantage I know of....
• Moz commented on Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Menace?
  tell me what good texting is It's asynchronous. If you ring me while I'm riding my bike I will ignore you and that's the end of that. But if you text me I can read your message when I get where I'm going and respond. Since my cellphone provider doesn't allow me to disable voicemail I have a message that says "text me, I never listen to voicemail"....
• paws4thot commented on Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Menace?
  Against that I can talk, walk and use both eyes to look out for traffic. If I try to text I have to stand still, read, "type" and can then start walking again. If I phone you to say "Which table are you at in the bar?" you can then reply whilst I still make walking pace towards the bar. If I was driving my phone would be off, and I'd not get a text and sooner than a voicemail....
• Moz commented on Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Menace?
  Sorry, I thought the question was "what is SMS good for" not "if your phone can only do one thing which should it be?" The obvious answer is that I would buy one of each sort of device and carry both, the way I used to have a pager as well as a cellphone....
• Elderly Cynic commented on Artificial Intelligence: Threat or Menace?
  Think about it a bit more deeply, because there is a serious implication. It's not just that such people are losing the ability to read and write, it's that they are abandoning the capability of ANY non-trivial written communication. This isn't a simple change of habit with age, but an aspect of the way our societies are breaking down. As with 'money', our technical facilities are becoming more abstruse, centralised, and controlled by a tiny minority - AND the abilities to handle them are being concentrated in fewer and fewer people. One of the oldest SF stories about this is...