As a kid, I thought voice recognition would be awesome. Robots were the shit, and talking to a computers was the coolest thing ever. As a kid, Short Circuit, Robocop, Star Wars, Star Trek, The Terminator, etc, were the coolest fucking movies ever. I wanted to play with robots like Johnny Five, I wanted to talk to my appliances to turn on the lights, to change channels, turn on an oven, etc.

I pay my car insurance once every 6 months to get a discount. I received a bill the other day, and decided to call and make a payment over telephone. I'm the type of person that would rather have all my bills automatically billed to a credit card, rather than fill out checks. Seems more reliable, and I get frequent flier points for my regular monthly bills, so why not?

I just called and spoke with the insurance company to pay my bill with credit card; I didn't speak with a representative from the company, though... I actually spoke to the "company." With a computer. I never pressed a button on my phone... I navigated through all menus by voice; I spoke all credit card information by voice. I did it all by speaking what I wanted, and the computer flowed what it was saying like a fucking person! Reading numbers, balances, etc, it all sounded like a real person. If (1) I weren't told that I was navigating by menu by voice instead of by numbers, and (2) the "voice" had shown a little emotion, e.g. laughter/chuckling/change in the voice's pitch, I don't think I would've ever fucking known that it was a computer!

That scares the hell out of me. I want to know how many jobs the "voice" replaced at Progressive. I want to know how much longer before companies start replacing all of their "customer service"-type jobs. I want to know how long it'll take me before I'm desensitized to talking conversations to a fucking computer. But most of all, I want to know what's going to happen to the millions of people that lose their jobs, and can't find any others because of voice lines, or the extremely-soon-to-come robots, that will serve the public once paid for with a one-time fee.

I don't know if it's just me, but I was shuddering while talking on the phone... it made me feel like less of a person and more of a serial number or bar code. This shit is going to take some serious getting used to

Voice recognition reply

Point well taken, I absolutly see the severity of the case at hand. Whilst were speaking, computers are taking over the jobs people were doing before. I myself am working in the I.T. sector and am keen on automation, but am now confronted by the fact that my job might be someday replaced.

( they'll have to invent robots that drive around town fixing computers, but hey who knows, right ? )

I guess we'll all just have to live with the fact that evolution can't be stopped ...

Re: Voice recognition

[quote=picklemonkey] But most of all, I want to know what's going to happen to the millions of people that lose their jobs, and can't find any others because of voice lines, or the extremely-soon-to-come robots, that will serve the public once paid for with a one-time fee.[/quote]

The same thing that happened to all them people that worked in factories building cars all them years back before robots took over. :roll: That just life i guess pickles, technology moves fast and folks get left behind.

number 1 reason why always staying current with your education is so damn important. makes you alot harder to be labled obsolete...

I work in IT at my company too, and one of my biggest functions used to be coding automation-type stuff to make my job run quicker. Reduced my average work time per PC from about 45 minutes to about 3 minutes... once I got that pretty solid, I had basically coded my job obsolete. I found bigger projects to do, and have definitely grew in my "education" of how different things work. I graduated from college with a Computer Engineering degree, and my senior project was to design/build/low-level program IC the associated IC chips of a touchscreen-controlled home automation system to turn off any electrical appliance in a house... lights, television, etc., it controlled it; either by touch or timers. ya know, this is the kind of shit that I think the "future" should hold for people: simple/small machines that do simple tasks. When it comes to trying to model a piece of electronics/machinery to imitate how people act and their emotions, it starts to toy with other's emotions.

Machines are machines. Making them look/sound/act like a person just feels wrong.

or maybe I'm just being a douche right now

[quote] or maybe I'm just being a douche right now [/quote]

absolutly not, i totally agree with the man/machine point of view. But tell that to the big companys whom only see the profit of it...

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[quote=Jibgolly]press 0[/quote]

true :D

it is scary alot of places are using it and it is so real too[/quote]

I've had this credit card company calling me about info I forgot to add on my application and its a god damned computer.... at first I thought nothing of it.... but last friday it called me three times in a row and the messages are EXACTLY the same .....everything pitch tone whatever.... freaks me out

I've recently read an interesting book that hits this scenario dead on and by one of my absolute favorite authors to boot...Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut. A very interesting read about a society where machines are taught to replicate the tasks of men and reach a point where they totally replace the humans leaving humanity/society in the shitters...

i like computers.

"make me a fucking sandwhich bitch!"

"clean my feet"

"clean my room"

"kiss me"

....

[quote=Cyke-][quote] or maybe I'm just being a douche right now [/quote]

absolutly not, i totally agree with the man/machine point of view. But tell that to the big companys whom only see the profit of it...[/quote]

there are just few calling centers in US right now.

Most companies are hiring calling services in my country or other south american countries. They cost up to 1/10 of what would cost in the US.

[quote=arielus][quote=Cyke-][quote] or maybe I'm just being a douche right now [/quote]

absolutly not, i totally agree with the man/machine point of view. But tell that to the big companys whom only see the profit of it...[/quote]

there are just few calling centers in US right now.

Most companies are hiring calling services in my country or other south american countries. They cost up to 1/10 of what would cost in the US.[/quote]

indeed you are right, but you've just argumentend my point, that big companys see the profit over the people, verdad??

i just added some to your point.

fat companies only want profit :|

Its inevitable really. Doesn't scare me too much.

Re: Voice recognition

Beeeeeeeeeeeep, I mean booooooooooop, beeeep, booop, I mean beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. :D

It makes sense. Why pay someone to "tell" you what your account balance is when it is such a simple task? Companies don't feel it's worth it to have a live person tell you how much you have in the bank. It reduces the cost for them and directs their attention to more important matters that require more resources. Now if they wanted to go all out, they would have replicated the voice of a seductive female so at least maybe it gives you some stimulation in the ears :shock:

I rue the day they model these things after strippers... "do you want to pay for your insurance today? OKAY! How about you pay for mine and my friends for a month, too? Aww come on! How about just me?"

roofles