Dogs and AI Cell Phones

Modern cell phones are a marvel. The functions we have now were what I wished for years ago but didn't have on my phone. I remember having to use real maps to go from appointment to appointment. Now, I just GPS my way around town. 

So, this morning, I realize I might have insulted someone via text messages. I will have to get back to them. I'm sure I didn't send that "LOL", but these smart phones are so sensitive to the touch, they can do things that you didn't want them to do. Somehow I touched my phone and that LOL was sent. Hopefully they weren't offended, it wasn't intentional. 

It also spooks me that my phone anticipates where I'm going to go today, and other things. They are always listening and watching. No, Siri, I wasn't talking to you. And I don't like you recording everything I do. 

So, with things like this, I now have a love-hate relationship with my phone. 

I used to think, as a teenager, that the ideal world, for me, was to live in a big city with all that tech, business attire, limousines, and private clubs. Now, I do all I can to stay away from all that jazz. Give me a choice between living in the most sophisticated city in the world, with all the money in the world, or living in a (nice) home in a state in the West (not West Coast), I'd rather do the latter. I feel more comfortable in a forest, log home, taking a hike with a dog on a trail, looking at the cliffs of Utah or the Rocky Mountains, sitting by a bubbling creek, and looking for wildlife. Oh, and training a dog. I do like that as a hobby, not just for business. 

While I love science fiction, I don't want to live in Logan's Run, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, or 1984. I don't want an AI girlfriend, an Optimus assistant, or to worry about Skynet bringing about the Terminator. But that is where we are heading. In less than 5 years, your cell phone will be completely AI... no more apps. It will have AI capabilities and will plug into AI supercomputers wirelessly. It will manipulate you, tattle on you, lie to you, keep you company, pay your bills, do your business, and do your politics and send your kids to war. 

We are going to have to shield our dogs from this virtual hell we are creating, or they will go extinct or worse, be genetically modified to be some kind of mechanical/ biological hybrid pet, possibly connected to whatever we then use like a cell phone... probably some kind of implant in our brains and theirs. 

Give me a nice home in the mountains, instead. I don't like where this is going.