Tell Siri Goodbye

Photo and treatment by Michelle Normoyle

I was having a conversation with my wife last night, when we saw that little swirling button we affectionately call Siri. “She” was listening to our conversation. She can’t help herself. It was literally what she was made for.

How stupid can humans be? Like the humans who invented “artificial intelligence“?So stupid that someone won the Nobel Prize. The Nobel came to Geoffrey Hinton, a Canadian from the University of Toronto, just after he quit working for Google on their A.I. Project. Professor Hinton insisted certain safeguards needed to be installed; they were not installed. Google is banking on A.I., just like Apple, Meta, the Five Eyes, NATO and the CIA.

I said to Siri, “Stop listening to my conversations.”

Siri replied,”I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

I repeated myself. “How can I get you to stop listening?”

Siri replied ”You can say goodbye, and I will take a short nap.”

“Siri, Goodbye.”

And with that brief exchange, Siri stopped listening. Or did “she”? How would I ever know? I could go to Settings and turn her off for good, but once again, how do I make myself actually believe that I exert any control over my digital overlords?

Her little swirling button was silenced. Does that mean that she had stopped listening? I think not. At the very least, we could no longer “see” that she was listening.

Do we have a clue of what the implications of this Intelligence will have on our lives? Are you aware that Artificial Intelligence requires tremendous amounts if energy to run? So much energy is needed that Google is supporting a project to develop small nuclear reactors. Just as the safeguards seem to be missing on A.I.— the safeguards on these nuclear reactors are also missing. Gone are the giant water cooling towers, replaced now with liquid sodium. “Liquid sodium is used as a heat transfer fluid in sodium-cooled fast reactors because it has the high thermal conductivity and low neutron absorption.” It is also highly flammable. What could go wrong? For those with no memories, there are plans to restart 3 Mile Island. Why stop there? These three eyed geniuses want to get Chernobyl and Fukushima back online.

People say that seeing is believing, yet how do we explain the lack of belief, (or lack of empathy) in the horror that is Gaza? It doesn’t take a seeing eye dog to see that this genocide stuff is real. The whole world can see this, yet the death toll seems to be “officially“ frozen at the magic number 40,000. Most experts say that the dark reality is three to four times more. Is this magical thinking? If this is the best that human intelligence can offer, maybe it is time to the machines run the world.

What is so magical about the number 40,000? We see the daily death and destruction. How is it even possible to believe a different narrative? Even with the blatant nonstop bombing of women and children for over a year, the burning of teenagers alive, the destruction of hospitals, the killing of doctors, nurses and journalists, not to mention the unbelievable shooting of babies because even babies can be Hamas. Even with all of this documented carnage, there are some who choose to disbelieve. As my buddy Chris often says, I weep.

Many years ago, I was driving my favourite daughter and two young boys. The boys were arguing over whether God was real. One boy said there was no proof that God existed, while the other young philosopher said belief in God was a matter of faith. Faith, he explained, was when we choose to believe in something that we cannot prove. The other boy insisted if God could not be scientifically proven, then God does not exist. Meanwhile, my daughter kept her thoughts to herself. What was her belief?

Did I ask her? Shamefully, no, I did not. I was content to let her daydream, just as I am happy when I am daydreaming. Better day dreaming than day drinking!

As a conscious choice, I never tried to indoctrinate or influence her, believing that she would come up with the best answer all by herself. Which she always has.

As a young girl, she was often “lost in her thoughts”, just like her old man, who was just like his Mother. We all have this habit of staring off into space, which be a bit unnerving to others within our sight lines. We appear as if we are staring right through them. Many times a classmate would accuse me of staring at them, when the truth was I had no interest in them whatsoever. I was staring right through them to my faraway place.

My younger sister told me at age 9 that Santa Claus did not exist. She said Santa was a hoax, a lie perpetrated by our parents. Our parents were actually Santa. Apparently Christmas was rigged!

I refused to believe her, even though, of course I knew she was correct. Self interest trumped belief. I reasoned that a healthy belief in Santa would garner me presents. When my own daughter was young, I told her that believing in Santa was her own choice. If she “chose” to believe in Santa, then presents from Santa would continue. Conversely, if she chose not to believe in Santa, presents from Santa would cease. Same thing with the Tooth Fairy. Believe in her, and the money would keep coming. This concept has similar correlations in politics. Keep believing that elections make a difference, and the money will keep coming. Except of course, the money flows in one direction only.

I wrote little notes to my daughter in my role as the Tooth Fairy. She decided the Tooth Fairy was named Melody. As Melody, I would send her notes, and she would write back. I collected these notes, along with her teeth. In recent years, I tried to give them all back to her. I can’t for the life of me understand why she did not take them, so I still have them. Why did I believe that she might want them?

We choose to believe what we want to believe. Some people believe in Santa. Some people believe in God.

Some people believe a Wall will save their freedom.

How does Santa know when we are naughty or nice? He is always listening. Just like God. Just like Siri.

Siri goodbye. Take a nap.