Hello Robot

Doing business with the robot is the way it's going, like it or not. Robots or technological workings over human-to-human interaction, is now. We've seen it coming when we watched the film hearing sweet voiced Hal in the space ship, but like all "bacterial" growth, the use of non-human devices in our lives, is doubling or more, on its time frames. We can shop with a tap. Pay for food priced in bar codes, not numbers. Some workers don't have a boss per se. If shift workers in their jobs, they get the call and off they go. Most calls are a series of pleasant voices telling us what number to press. (Incidentally always hit 0 where the real global human hides out.) There is no arguing or making excuses to a robot. You can't cough into the phone and play sick or get a tearful sympathy draw on your pay cheque from a machine. They just don't care or even know what caring is all about. So far. That's the down side, but there is also an "up" to it as well.  Machines or robot bosses don't badger you or frown or yell or make passes. They say "do it", and if you don't, you know where the "door"is. Simple and heartless. There is no discussion or negotiation or whining time. Machines just whir on as their makers have directed. If you're doing a real estate transaction, most of the viewing and dealing can be done from your office chair in front of your computer whether it be a laptop, phone, notebook or wrist device. Move over Dick Tracy. All the information you seek about someone, if they are hep, can be Googled. On line dating, weddings, funerals and taxes, sometimes medical advice, is readily available from the web. You can search and sign documents, share pictures and plans, do just about anything on line. Feeling lonely? We won't speak of the accommodating robotic love machines. Puhleese. Get onto facebook and in no time you've got more faces to friend than you can keep up with, and they could be half way around the world. With your phone or other device you get the latest news, do business, record voices, take photos, have security, listen to music, watch a film, call home: anything. The only problem is a no area-service or that there is no energy source. What concerns me, is not so much the robot situation, but the human one. Are we still able to communicate with people in a real way, one with emotional involvement? Do we feel, or just do. Can we argue or discuss or negotiate? Do we have expressive faces and abilities? Oh wait, I can look up all these stats as soon as I locate my cell. No problem, I forgot about my classy new computer watch. I'll give my cell a call, okay Hal?