AI assistance
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There's a big snowstorm expected this weekend, and so lots of Monday events are being cancelled. One of the notices that I got today had this Subject line:
Canceled January 26 colloquium hey Siri hey Alexa, what is Monday’s date?
I'm not sure whether this was a joke, or the residue of a chatbot appeal. But it's actually funny either way.
M. Paul Shore said,
January 24, 2026 @ 5:26 am
Reminds me of how some people will use navigation systems to guide them through trips they’ve known how to do for years. (Yes, I realize that sometimes a navigation system will alert the driver to the existence of a traffic jam he or she wouldn’t know about otherwise, or alert him or her to the existence of a long-unsuspected superior route; but when the driver’s attention is so riveted to the almost entirely unneeded navigation system that he or she can’t carry on an ordinary conversation, and/or the navigation voice keeps disrupting conversations, that in my opinion is taking things too far.)
Linda Seebach said,
January 24, 2026 @ 10:38 am
analagous . . . We spent a sabbatical year in Zurich, long ago, and went to see the movie "Rosemary's Baby." It had subtitles in German, naturally, and it was quite a while before i realized I was struggling to read the subtitles and not hearing the dialog at all.
JJM said,
January 24, 2026 @ 12:17 pm
Regarding subtitles, if a show is in, say, Hungarian, No trouble.
But being an English/French speaker, any English film subtitled in French or French one with English subtitles will just drive me nuts!
Richard Hershberger said,
January 25, 2026 @ 8:17 am
@M. Paul Shore A quick consultation with Google Maps with the traffic overlay will alert one to any traffic issues. Anything beyond this is endumbnification through tech.
Philip Taylor said,
January 25, 2026 @ 10:18 am
In that case, I am routinely endumbnified. I routinely travel to a number of locations within a dozen or so miles of my home, and I routinely ask my satellite navigation to guide me there. Not (of course) because I have forgotten the route, but because like most mortals I lack prescience and therefore cannot predict which of the several possible routes will prove optimal. My endumbnifying assistant, on the other hand, is updated virtually instantaneously with information pertaining to traffic accidents, lane closures, road closures, etc., and can therefore guide me both safely and optimally to my destination,
Olaf Zimmermann said,
January 25, 2026 @ 9:03 pm
@Linda Seebach Sitting in an Antwerp hotel room and watching a Dutch programme with Phlegmish subtitles on Belgian TV was ever funnier, though no less compelling.