[MEME] The Screenless Future? - Comments Page 2

At least it would make it more likely that drivers would be watching the road and not the keypad. When I was loading groceries into the car, the woman next to me was already on her phone even while she was trying to back her car out.

I invested several dozen hours on three versions of Dragon NS; first in 1999 and most recently 6 years ago. They were expensive mistakes.

The only thing I can think of is that having spent 16 years in Scotland, 4 years in Germany, 15 months in England, the rest in the US and being multilingual, my voice/accent simply varies too much too often for the software to recognize.

Another way I know this is that negotiating with the VRU's of large corporations is excruciating in the extreme: my success rate is about 5%. Cortana is another disaster: I've turned it off and I have no intention of buying an iPhone.

My experience tells me this technology has quite a bit further to go in terms of development before it will be as ubiquitous as you foresee. Additionally, I will never give up my flat panel screens although I would be happy to add a holo screen and you will only get my mouse and stylus by prying them from my cold, dead hands.

Regardless, I always enjoy your posts. Sending thanks & best wishes!

As a touch-typist, I hate typing on glass. So, have been using the dictation-mode for writing e-mails and texts on an iPad Mini for ages. To this day, am shocked when occasionally I DON'T have to spend longer to correct errors than if I flat-out typed the message from start to finish. Thinking it was a problem with my bluetooth earpiece, I've gone through 4 of them with no improvement in accuracy. Have pretty much decided it's either a Apple shortcoming or that the device can sense that I despise talking to it and that I especially disdain devices that talk back to me... like those self-checkouts in stores ("Excuse me. Yes, some help here... Where's the MUTE button, please?")

I'm certainly no techno-nit-picker, as programming and troubleshooting have always come easy to me and provided an excellent income. I simply find this facet of technology to be more of an annoying waste of my time, at this point in it's evolution.

I guess I'll stay an old fuddy-duddy and stick with typing on a keyboard and using a mouse. I can understand that there could be many applications for these new fangled items for some people with disabilities or other situations that need them.
My thing is that when my bride and I go out to dinner, I see people sitting across from each other, not talking, but using their phones to text. What's going to happen when we're blinded by these items?

Using "scratch that" to accomplish error correction would hardly work. Scratch what, exactly? The last one word? the last phrase? the last sentence? No set of standardized voice cues for "go-back-to" would substitute for glancing up and down the text to find & review what you think may need rewording. Whether making a series of points... or giving detailed instructions...or explaining one's position on an issue, you need to review from various places in the text before you feel it's OK to "send". Trying to do that without a screen (or a printout) would require you to have memorized the paragraphs you dictated so far. It is similarly important when reading through difficult material written by others.

Granted, screenless methods will be useful for giving simple commands to physical machines, or to accommodate disabilities. However, the only normal "communication" a screenless world would be adequate for is the kind that has been increasingly conducted in 140 characters or less. What the world needs now is better comprehension and clarity, not faster or more effortless ways to communicate tidbits. We need better reasoning, not thoughtless comments that "shame" others based on snippets of false facts, or that tell the whole world what you ate for lunch. We can already see the effect that nano-dialogue has on our culture in everyone from little kids to Internet trolls (and presidential candidates).

I realize the trend to say very little, and to do it in in as few words (or acronyms) as possible, is already growing. But we need not intentionally adopt modes of interaction that will make that universal. When it gets to the point that we cannot easily use visual aids to read or write material of substance, thoughtful discourse itself may become extinct. Complex thought has been a capabilty unique to humans, much like humor. Once that ain't happening, our computer overlords will truly have no remaining reason to keep us around. (Sorry about that Kurzweill-like prediction.)

You don´t mention activities where this will never happen. Artists would have to go back to traditional paper and canvas, draftmen would have to go back to the drawing board and vellum, the news would be imageless, ect.

Would you surf the web to buy a product which will only be described verbally? A lot of activities do not need a screen, others will always need one.

Forgot to point out the timeless reason why screens may never disappear (unless we all disappear ourselves). One word: p**n

Your fridge will tell you what you need to buy and you take note in a paper? Wonderful. No no, using wi-fi will transfer to your screen-less phone and there you go to buy. Ah!, and when I'm there the phone will tell me a hundred times what is in the list till I find everything I need. I hope it will be in order or I'll go across the market store a hundred times: now I need some soda, now I need some bread, now I need carrots, now I need rice, now tomatoes (weren't them near de the carrots? in a list I would have ordered them If I could see it).
And will these marvelous devices be able to explain me the design of my next house using words? Better show me a nice picture (oh, damn, there is no screen).