April 22, 2008
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Reach out and touch someone
REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE
It’s really easy to get in touch with me. You can call me on my land line, or you can text me or call me on my cell phone. If that doesn’t work send me a message through Xanga, or leave a comment on my MySpace or Facebook page or even classmates.com. You could also leave a message for me at my registered domain name at www.marklabouff.com. If that doesn’t work, send me an email at my personal email address or at my work email address, or any one of 10 other email addresses I’ve had over the last several years and have abandoned but probably still work except that I never check them. Or you could call me at work and leave me a voice message which (since we have VOIP) interfaces directly with Outlook and sends it to me as a .wav file attachment to an email so I can pick it up wherever I am on my Treo. You could try something as old fashioned as sending me a fax, cause when you do it transmits it digitally to my Treo as well so that I can look at it with the built in document viewer. Or you could do what I’ve started doing lately and call jott.com and leave a voice mail which is transcribed into an email and sent to one of my email addresses or as a text message to my phone. Of course I also have a Cisco IP Communicator on my desktop which emulates the phone in the office, so if I’m on the road I can plug in a headset and pick up voice mail messages and maybe even give you call back directly through my laptop. If you happen to have video conferencing capability, I’ll give you the IP address at my office and we can set up an muti-point high definition video conference. If you happen to miss the conference it will be recorded and stored on a server via Media Site Live and you can go back and watch it at your convenience.
I’m so friggin’ connected to the universe that I haven’t had an actual face to face conversation with a real human being in at least six months.
There is a new technology that is being developed that puts everything listed above to shame. I swear I’m not making this up. It seems that when you think about saying a word, even if you don’t say it out loud, impulses are sent from your brain to your vocal cords. A device is being developed that fits around your neck and reads these impulses. The device then transcribes those impulses into the words they represent and can then send that out as a cell phone call. If the person you are calling is wearing a bluetooth earpiece they, of course, can hear the call without actually picking up the phone. If they are also wearing the neck device it’s possible to carry on a conversation without actually physically saying a word. Is that creepy or what? (Here’s a video)
The implications for this technology are mind boggling. Can you imagine two people in an office having a conversation with their boss? While their boss is talking, they are secretly having the following conversation: “What a moron.” “I swear to God his breath could stop a buffalo at thirty yards.” “I heard he’s sleeping with Janet, his administrative assistant.” “Really, ‘cause I heard he’s sleeping with Carl from accounting.” “Want to knock off early and grab a beer?” “Yeah, you fake a heart attack and when he stops talking to go call an ambulance we can make a run for it.”
Apparently the system has only learned to transcribe about 150 words so it has a very limited real world application right now, but you know its going to be available on your I-Phone in about two years.
So what do you think? Is all of this technology really helping you communicate, or is it just getting in the way?
Comments (17)
I view phones as necessary evils. Cell phones have buttons so small I have to sharpen my nails into talons to use them – when I can see the buttons. I don’t want to be available unless I decide I want to be available. I don’t check my email except maybe once a week… I am so unconnected as to be almost invisable… and I like it that way. I hate call waiting and refuse to use the service even though it’s part of our package.
I need time to think and reflect. To listen to music uninterrupted. To watch a movie all the way through. I reserve the right to not answer the phone just because it rings. I may love you, but I don’t necessarily want to talk with you right now. If it’s an emergency, call back. I’ve been known to turn off the ringer and forget to turn it back on – for days.
I know – I’m an old fashioned, crab.
I tell my boss all the time that he doesn’t really want us reading his mind – and I mean it. This is just a LITTLE too close to that. creepy
Creepy extreme. Not denying the potential for good, but still … the potential for abuse of the device is horrendous and monumental. There goes any semblance of privacy or discretion. Thought Police indeed! Put it on witnesses in court cases… have it required after the Miranda rights are read and the person doesn’t have to say anything at all, but they’re still heard… completely eradicates the need for a lie detector test… forget torture – just slap on this device and every thought is exposed to the world.
All that technology ignores one key thing: People may have all those communication options open, however, that doesn’t mean they return calls, make them at all, or do anything that creates a record you can hold them to later. The dirty players will only talk to you if its in person with no witnesses so they can deny things later.
As for that new technology…..the scary thing is having your thoughts (ALL OF THEM!) going out into the open. Scary!
YIKES….some of the “modern” ideas do creep me out. I am thinking that if I tried one of those new devices, I would be thinking about what a schmuck the person is that I am talking to. I don’t think this is such a great idea.
Frankly, m’dear, I’m glad I won’t be around to see much of this come to pass. I think the faster technology grows, the more young people’s minds are in overload.
While some of this techonolgy is good, we often assume because we have all these, that face-to-face interaction is not as important or even unnessecary. If I think back to the moments of true communication and connection with another person, it is always face to face, in person, side by side – because sometime, it’s in the silence that I connect with them the most. I don’t want to ever assume that because I talk to my best friend everyday on the phone that going to see her and hanging out isn’t valuable or important.
And let’s be honest, you can’t send a hug, kiss or smile via email or text. Good post! ~ L
I just recvd my daily call from Wells Fargo about selling me insurance. Supposedly they were to remove my name from their call list. If my remarks were heard on their phone I no longer would have ANY type of phone service. Trust me, this is NOT a good idea.
I fight tooth and nail against anything that makes me more accessable.
I can imagine lots of applications for that vocal cord reading device, and not all of them are friendly.
I’m pretty sure that a device that transmits my unspoken thoughts would be a very, very bad idea. Very bad idea.
I too had my thoughts automatically jump to military use, interrogation tactics…and certainly this new thing will trump the lie detector test. Imagine trying not to think of the thing you want not to think of most. (!)
Re: All of this communication/technology, here is another thing to ruminate on: We are rewiring our brains with how we need to respond to this type of imput. The children of today, their brains still forming, will have different neurological pathways – built for this kind of thing, essentially – than we will (though no doubt our brains are adapting, too). Because everything a person does or thinks grows neural pathways in certain directions and ways, all of these handheld devices and the need to constantly be “on” will make us a different sort of human than has ever been.
Around five or so years ago, Paul Harvey ran a segment on that there would soon be a device which would be able to extract memory – useful for such uses as to find out the last memory of a person victimized by homicide, so as to see the face of the perpetrator of the crime.
My own thought on the subject has been, once the US public hears about a different and/or new technology, it has already been in existance for 15-20 years.
But of course, who am I…Just a little housewife. What would I know.
“Did you do your homework?! Well, did you?! That’s RIGHT! Now get on it, BUSTER!”
lol Forget Big Brother. It’s Big Mother!
I pride myself on having a filter in place between what I think and what I say. I would not want this technology forced on me. Its a different story when you voluntarily strap the thing around your neck (like a noose). How many times have people hung themselves with their own words?
“So what do you think? Is all of this technology really helping you communicate, or is it just getting in the way?”
*YES!*
Although I agree there is enormous potential for abuse with this technology, I can see some ways it could be helpful as well. My first thought was of my brother, who has ALS. The disease has taken his ability to speak from him, but with this technology he could more easily communicate with others. However, even he would probably not appreciate having his *every* thought transmitted, I suspect!
As for me, I think if I had all the technology “toys” that you have I’d go nuts! I’m far too private of a person to want to be that connected.
I HATE electronic communication because of the potential for abuse. In 20 years, folks who are now teenagers will not be able to effectively communicate face-to-face. And currently they are learning how to be ugly to each other via text messaging.
Well there goes the whole saying, of “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.” Not to mention that your on the phone with your wife and this attractive woman goes by and your in the doghouse for a fleeting thought…no thanks, the thought life is hard enough as it is… then again you’ld have one heck of a better accountability on your thought life!