[MEME] The Screenless Future? - Comments Page 1

Bob,

Being DEAF have no smart phone I do not like WIFI on everything, think about it WIFI is not safe
can be caught with the right equipment so to me I use the old tech forget the WIFI NOT SAFE

Not in the distant future we will be talking to ourselves and others will look at us oddly as they pass by us. OH WAIT, people already do that. It's about time that technology catches up.

Sorry Bob, have to disagree with you when it comes to Dragon Naturally Speaking. Have been using this program since I got online 11 years ago, 5 min. to train and have it recognize your voice is a small price to pay. It allows me to control my computer, dictate e-mails, etc. admittedly have not tried any of the others, but at this point in time but don't feel it's necessary.
Thanks for your daily newsletter, don't know what we would do without you keeping us up-to-date with a sense of humor.

The original screenless voice communicator was and still is the landline telephone.
Oh, and Bob, I would definitely keep an eye out for "those nice young men in their clean white coats" if I were you.

A screenless future is a very bad idea, just like all those videos that play in real time.

I have opted out of watching most of the news and other videos, in favor of *speed reading* the transcripts where available. Speed reading. Literacy at warp speed. Wow. What a concept. Skimming a whole newspaper page at one time sure beats trying to read the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times on a tiny handheld screen or even on a desktop computer screen.

Why are we slowing people down to a crawl? Screenless voice interaction may be fine for some things and at certain times, but how about when you want to write a lot and edit what you've said? And what happens when you get laryngitis or you're holding nails or pins in your lips?

To go from yelling at your neighbor to using a magical telephone wire was definitely progress. To go from getting all your news in print form with a static photograph of the characters to seeing videos so you can view the body language of politicians and hear their possibly lying voices was a great thing. But once you've got a politician pegged, you can speed read through his or her spiel and save a ton of time, the thing we all need more of.

Did we get rid of hand washing clothes when the washing machine was invented? No. They each fulfill different needs.

Did we get rid of walking when the car was invented? Not entirely, and we started having to spend time just walking or exercising for their own sake. Self-locomotion and vehicles fulfill different needs and we should use both.

Screens are here to stay, same as paper and pen or pencil.

Longhand writing should not be phased out in favor of typing on computer keyboards or voice interaction. What happens to your computer access when you don't pay the electric bill or you become homeless?

Our real future is in time-saving devices, even ones that have been around for centuries. Time-saving devices should stay with us, regardless of the year in which they were invented. Each one saves time at different times and in different ways. I want the entire palette.

A totally computerized future isn't all it's cracked up to be, and neither is a screenless future.

More and more people have machines do things for them; driving us to an inactive, indoors existence.
When we have robots trained to built the basic supporting infrastructure, there will no longer be a need for the human body - or if there is a body, no need to get it out of bed in the morning. Then again, maybe we will be living in space where there is no night and survive is all that there is left for humanity to do.
Interaction among us is what makes life worth living. WTF? This thought can go on forever!!!

Some of the commentators have dire predictions for the fate of the human race based on a screenless future. To me it is just another tool. Use it where is makes sense and not where it doesn't. We will continue to have a need for manual input and output (mice and screens), we just don't need them on a lot things we use now. I use Alexa and Siri for specific things but still like my screens.

It seems to me that the Captain would have figured out by now that “Tea, Earl Grey, hot.” could have been replaced by a simple "Tea, please"? It's not as if he ever drinks any other variety. ; )

What about verbal typos? Instead of using a key to delete the extra "i" in Azerbaijian in about a second, I'd have to tell it where it is & what to do with it?

I don't expect that screens will go out of style soon, or mice either.

I still find myself wanting to be tactile, and I don't mean touchscreen. I'm concerned that the voice recognition won't completely understand me and would I have to dictate numbers to use a calculator?

Robert Lee, voice recognition software will allow you to do numbers. It does not take away your ability to use your mouse. So you will have a choice to use voice recognition and your mouse. All you're actually doing is dictating, if you make a mistake, there is a voice command " scratch that " which allows you to remove any and all mistakes. Hope that gives you an idea of what you're looking at.

No screen and no keyboard for Excel spreadsheets? If you're not going to look at it, why bother with the spreadsheet at all? Ditto for PowerPoint presentations. And internet banking and other financial transactions online? Nah... I think we'll still have screens and keyboards for a good, long time. Well, until us old-timers die off, anyway.

I started using Dragon Natural Speaking in the 90ties and I liked it from the very beginning. It makes it much easier to write articles, longer email or even a book.
However, human beings are focused on what they see like nicely arranged food or a beautiful woman/man.
Therefore I don't want to miss a screen. Beside that a mice makes life easy and is much better than a touch pad.
I don't like to miss these.

The one issue I have with talking and listening to your phone, tablet or computer is privacy and courtesy in public places. I can now verbally query my IPhone, but often choose to type in my queries when I am in a public place because I don't want people to know what I am working on. And if I am in a meeting or lecture, I don't want to disturb the speakers and want to work quietly. That said, I use the voice query function whenever I feel comfortable doing so.

No "smart" phones for me thanks. I see way too many people doing something on their smart phone not paying attention to what is going on around them at all. The world can be a dangerous place physically and financially. Privacy has become virtually extinct anymore.
Why should we share our thoughts and feelings with total strangers by ignoring them? This doesn't mean they are ignoring us.
There are a lot of predators out there folks. They watch for people not paying attention to things.

What about the Deaf community? We rely on visual aids to function. Taking that away and going screenless will severely and basically leave us all in the dust.

Absolutely hate dictating to my smartphone which is a Samsung Galaxy 5. I either have to speak so slowly that it takes forever or I am left to make so many corrections to the text that I could have typed it faster in the first place. Maybe voice recognition will improve but on this phone, it isn't good.

I don't have a mobile phone, smart or otherwise.

I don't have a speaker on my computer.

I tried Dragon in the 90s and again in the noughties - couldn't get on with it.

Our landline still works and is way cheaper (VOIP).

Herself makes me take her smart thingie with me when I am in danger of being needed - hasn't worked out that I don't know how it works since she upgraded.

It's freedom.

Jon

Like Clyde, I am deaf. If you take my screen away you take computers away from me. I am another old geezer hanging on by a thread but I am still here and still trying to learn. No screen, no more e-books, even less learning. I certainly hope they are around for some of us at leaat. I would complain about no one caring about the handicapped but the govenmeat ruled being deaf is not a "handicap".

We need both voice and visual. My hat is off to the blind that can work computers and I am all for anything that will help them so I do hope they keep making voice better.

Imagine listening to all them ads first before getting the weather!
Gloria Huffman makes a good point when she replied about skimming through the news :)

What gets me is the phrase "Everybody....." Not everybody is going to be able to afford these wonderful new toys. (New "toys" do come with hefty price tags--at least for folks in my financial situation.) This "voice" business might be just what visually impaired people need but it sure as heck isn't what we hearing-impaired folks need. Damn, I'm glad I'm old and won't be around when all the new "toys" get forced upon us. Thanks for the "heads-up" but: "No Thanks" to the concepts. It bugs the hell out of me that so many people force their conversations on me because of their damned cell phones. Not for me.