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"I think engineering will supply our demand for a "spiritual" life after meat death."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Daily Schedule (DS) | ||
| The DS was an artificially intelligent day planner, a schedule keeper with voice recognition features; it also talked back when necessary. |
There is an exchange that runs over several pages in the novel, giving an interesting glimpse of what this technology holds in store for the rest of us in years to come. Interestingly, Herbert uses a machine to cause his character to introspect.
| The Daily Schedule began playing to McKie as he emerged from the bath. The DS suited its tone to his movements and the combined analysis of his psychophysical condition. "Good morning, ser," it fluted. McKie, who could interpret the analysis of his mood from the DS tone, put down a flash of resentment. Of course he felt angry and concerned. "Good morning, you dumb inanimate object," he growled... He'd been meaning to for some time to reprogram the damned thing. No matter how carefully you set them, they always got out of phase. He didn't bother to bridle his mood, merely spoke the words in full emotional spate: "Now you hear me, machine: don't you ever again choose that buddy-buddy conversational tone when I'm in this mood!" "Your admonition recorded and new program instituted, ser." The DS adopted a brisk, matter of fact tone as it continued... |
| From The Dosadi Experiment,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Berkley Putnam in 1977 Additional resources -
|
Personally, I'm not sure that I want to have a day planner built into my house - especially if I have to argue with it!
The device did more than just play back appointments:
As though it knew his thoughts, the DS said:
"I'm still a machine. You are inefficient, but as you have correctly stated you have ways at arriving at accuracy which machines do not understand. We can only... guess, and we are not really programmed to guess unless specifically ordered to do so on a given occasion. Trust yourself."
"But you'd rather I were not killed?"
"That is my program."
"Do you have any more helpful suggestions?"
"You would be advised to waste as little time as possible here. There was a tone of urgency in BIldoon's voice."
McKie stared at the nearest voder...
"Are you sure he sounded urgent?"
"He spoke rapidly and with obvious tensions."
"Truthful?"
"The tone-spikes lead to that conclusion."
Its voder is described as "fluting" its responses; it is interesting to compare this kind of voice (like a woodwind instrument, as opposed to a digital reproduction) to a similar device in Neuromancer (see the Talking Head), by William Gibson.
In McKie's thoughts, the DS [Daily Schedule] was suddenly transformed into a valued confidante.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Dosadi Experiment
More Ideas
and Technology by Frank Herbert
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- x.ai And The Quest For A Digital Personal Assistant
- Evorus Your Crowd-Powered Conversational Assistant
| Legal Profession Now Fairly Bristling With AI |
| Venezuelans Teaching Your Self-Driving Car |
| Pun Generation Via Neural Nets |
| Can We Comprehend Deep Learning Systems? |
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''... major cities of Earth have free electrical power conveniently processed from their own noise.'
'The appearance was enough like a giant witch's broom to justify the nickname.'
'A vast circle of scarlet stars came up into the greenish desert dusk.'
'He had constructed an organ, a brain, of metal, entirely inorganic and lifeless...'
'I shall never forget the sight... when the yellow gleam of the precious metal appeared under the star dust.'
Oh, and now I suppose someone will develop the robotic porch pirate.
'This thing will start at one end of ...a house and build it complete to the other end, following drawings only.'
