Siri, Redux
Apple has unveiled the new paradigm of conversing with an artificially intelligent computer. The Siri Assistant gives us the type of interface we see on Star Trek, the one we’ve always wanted. You never see them bumbling around their computers unless something goes seriously wrong. They just tell the computer what they want it to do and it does it. I put on an episode of Star Trek and began to get excited. If all goes well, the masses will have this kind of technology in a few weeks!
The interface we’ve always wanted.
Siri is inclusive.
I was born in 1981 and, thanks to my father, had the good fortune to begin my exposure to personal computers very, very shortly thereafter. Dad was obtaining an engineering degree and, in an order I don’t quite remember, acquired an Apple II, a TRS-80 (that I recall spending many, many hours punching BASIC code into), and the original Macintosh. Access to the internet quickly came through the University, followed by a long string of evolutionary computer upgrades, including the LC, the Powerbook Duo, the Quadra, PowerMac 7500, the beige G3, and on and on until today—my father, brothers and I have likely owned dozens of Macs over the last thirty years.
“Computer, tell me a joke. And make it a good one this time.”
And while these computers were amazing, in and of themselves—I remember being suitably impressed by the G3’s power—as a kid they were not what I knew, or desired, from Star Trek. They are now beginning to come close. The Mac has had voice recognition built in for decades, and I can clearly remember sitting in my father’s office at work pestering his computer to continually tell me jokes. I think, after a while, it would chide you, asking, “shouldn’t you get back to work?” In Star Trek, “they just tell the computer what they want it to do and it does it,” Austin writes above. How the computer was accessed—with a mouse, keyboard or stylus—was no longer important. The technology fell away, and the user would interact directly with the content. As a kid, that got me truly excited about the future of computing.
I felt that excitement again when I purchased my iPad, and embarassingly enough, was thrilled enough to email Steve about it.
I’m excited, now, about the technology behind Siri partly because it brings me one step closer to the future of computing that was promised to me by a television show so many years ago. More importantly, I am excited again because Apple has made universal accessibility a keystone in this iOS update, and they’ve done so under the guise of a cool, new, mainstream feature Apple has deemed worthy of dedicating a large portion of their attention and publicity toward.
Siri is, after all, inclusive.
Austin writes,
Accessibility helps everyone. Apple has made it mainstream. The blind have enjoyed text to speech for years. Now the sighted can enjoy eyes-free operation as well. Voice recognition and a wealth of data complete a perfect picture of universal accessibility.
