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In our house, we changed the device's wake word to 'computer' as it is one of the alternatives. It's OK to demand things without saying please to a computer.

In our house, we changed the device's wake word to 'computer' as it is one of the alternatives. It's OK to demand things without saying please to a computer. "Computer, play my music".

Brian_K_White 5y ago
Something like that needs to be the default tbough. The existence of an alternative setting, and the fact that one family even used it, does not address the problem that now teenage boys probably say "Alexa suck my ..." to 12 year old girls. What Amazon has done is created a part of everyones environment. Many companies have done that by now. Have been ever since industrialization and mass prduction not just internet related things. To me, that comes with some responsibility. We just have no formal system for recognizing and codifying that responsibility. Most of our capitalism rules are still based around a shop owner. A local barber shop can name a new hair style anything they want, because even if it's somehow harmful, only a few people are ever exposed to it. But ever since Ford and Kraft etc, private companies have created things which become part of the environment of everyone in a whole country or even the whole world. We did codify some of that responsibility in the form of some basic safety standards and cencorship on the old pre-cable public tv and radio spectrum. Something like a name? It's hard to say how that should be handled, but I think we haven't even tried to consider it as a question yet, let alone answer it.
- noduerme 5y ago
  Names have been driven by cinema for a long time. The 1970 Jennifer boom is a famous example. This eventually led to a superabundance of Jennifers, and finally a crash. https://nationalpost.com/news/the-jennifer-epidemic-how-the-spiking-popularity-of-different-baby-names-cycle-like-genetic-drift https://nationalpost.com/news/the-jennifer-epidemic-how-the-...
professoretc 5y ago
Same here, because I wanted to feel like I was on Star Trek. Although it can get confused, given that I teach computer science and talk about it a lot.
missedthecue 5y ago
If you use the word computer in ordinary conversation frequently enough though, this seems like it might become a little annoying :)

In our house, we changed the device's wake word to 'computer' as it is one of the alternatives. It's OK to demand things without saying please to a computer. "Computer, play my music".

Brian_K_White 5y ago

Something like that needs to be the default tbough. The existence of an alternative setting, and the fact that one family even used it, does not address the problem that now teenage boys probably say "Alexa suck my ..." to 12 year old girls. What Amazon has done is created a part of everyones environment. Many companies have done that by now. Have been ever since industrialization and mass prduction not just internet related things. To me, that comes with some responsibility. We just have no formal system for recognizing and codifying that responsibility. Most of our capitalism rules are still based around a shop owner. A local barber shop can name a new hair style anything they want, because even if it's somehow harmful, only a few people are ever exposed to it. But ever since Ford and Kraft etc, private companies have created things which become part of the environment of everyone in a whole country or even the whole world. We did codify some of that responsibility in the form of some basic safety standards and cencorship on the old pre-cable public tv and radio spectrum. Something like a name? It's hard to say how that should be handled, but I think we haven't even tried to consider it as a question yet, let alone answer it.

noduerme 5y ago
Names have been driven by cinema for a long time. The 1970 Jennifer boom is a famous example. This eventually led to a superabundance of Jennifers, and finally a crash. https://nationalpost.com/news/the-jennifer-epidemic-how-the-spiking-popularity-of-different-baby-names-cycle-like-genetic-drift https://nationalpost.com/news/the-jennifer-epidemic-how-the-...

professoretc 5y ago

Same here, because I wanted to feel like I was on Star Trek. Although it can get confused, given that I teach computer science and talk about it a lot.

missedthecue 5y ago

If you use the word computer in ordinary conversation frequently enough though, this seems like it might become a little annoying :)