(Is ‘2525’ here already?) Here’s what can happen when you let Google run your life.

I had to laugh at this article. It is funny in a perverse sort of way. But it shows the dangers of relying on ‘machines’ to do everything for us, even simple tasks that would require the flip of a switch.

Woman says her Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact

A Portland family contacted Amazon to investigate after they say a private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon's Alexa -- the voice-controlled smart speaker -- and that the recorded audio was sent to the phone of a random person in Seattle, who was in the family’s contact list.

"My husband and I would joke and say I'd bet these devices are listening to what we're saying," said Danielle, who did not want us to use her last name.

Every room in her family home was wired with the Amazon devices to control her home's heat, lights and security system.

http://amp.kiro7.com/www.kiro7.com/www.kiro7.com/www.kiro7.com/news/loca...

These people get no sympathy nor do they deserve any in my opinion. To turn your lives over to Google is absolutely fucking ridiculous. That’s just handing that craptastic organization control of everything and if it goes belly-up, oh well. Yeah, you don’t have to get off your lazy ass to check the thermostat or to flip a light switch, which can be done with next to no effort on a human’s part with old school non-invasive technology since 1984...

[video:https://youtu.be/MTNuJXi6UUk width:200 height:200]

Apparently that’s still too much work for some. I know some are gonna say “what if I’m at work, on vacation”, etc. Well humans have been able to figure out a way around this up to now without having to have Bezos & Co. handle it for them. Things like timer switches are a wonderful thing. But you have to program them which apparently is too much of a task for many in today’s world.

A fully automated life means a life of absolutely NO privacy. There is a record of everything you do. It’s not like we have much privacy left now but for the life of me I cannot understand why people want to just hand what’s left to people like Bezos. He hasn’t got anyone’s interests at heart but his own. And there is some question about how great this new technology really is. In fact, some think it might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

What Google isn't telling us about its AI demo
https://www.axios.com/google-ai-demo-questions-9a57afad-9854-41da-b6e2-5...

Uh, Did Google Fake Its Big A.I. Demo?
The tech press has questions, and Google isn’t providing any answers.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/uh-did-google-fake-its-big-ai-demo

Did Google Fake Its Duplex AI Demo?
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/269497-did-google-fake-its-google-...

It’s like a ‘cashless’ society. THAT scares the Helll out of me. That means that there is a record somewhere of what you did with every dime you make. Let that one percolate between your ears for a minute.

And just think what a handy tool this would be for law enforcement. If you think they won’t find a way to use it you’re not paying attention.

Apparently some people don’t realise that The Jetsons was only a cartoon.

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EdMass's picture

Back in the day I was on a cross country flight and the Pilot started playing guessing games for bottles of wine (yeah long time ago). He asked, anyone know the band that sang 2525? I just so happen to have the lead singer in the co-pilot seat.

Me. Hit the steward bell and say Zager and Evans

Winner winner chicken dinner.

I and those around me enjoyed some fine grape.

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

Amanda Matthews's picture

@EdMass

Zager and Evans was a US rock-pop duo of the late 1960s and early 1970s named after its two members, Denny Zager (born 1944, Wymore, Nebraska) and Rick Evans (born 1943, Lincoln, Nebraska). They are best known for their 1969 hit single "In the Year 2525".

*

LThe song was originally written in 1964 and recorded and released in 1968 on the Truth Records label. After radio stations in Lincoln and Omaha turned the record into a regional "break-out" hit record, RCA Records signed the duo and rereleased the song nationwide.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zager_and_Evans

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Azazello's picture

Apparently, Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands.
I've never believed this techno-utopian BS.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Azazello

Over the last two years, researchers in China and the United States have begun demonstrating that they can send hidden commands that are undetectable to the human ear to Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant. Inside university labs, the researchers have been able to secretly activate the artificial intelligence systems on smartphones and smart speakers, making them dial phone numbers or open websites. In the wrong hands, the technology could be used to unlock doors, wire money or buy stuff online — simply with music playing over the radio.

A group of students from University of California, Berkeley, and Georgetown University showed in 2016 that they could hide commands in white noise played over loudspeakers and through YouTube videos to get smart devices to turn on airplane mode or open a website.

This month, some of those Berkeley researchers published a research paper that went further, saying they could embed commands directly into recordings of music or spoken text. So while a human listener hears someone talking or an orchestra playing, Amazon’s Echo speaker might hear an instruction to add something to your shopping list.

Yeah, TPTB gotta love how stupid our laziness is making us!!!

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

WaterLily's picture

@Amanda Matthews Is that whole Yanni/Laurel tripe an example of this?

Sort of related: Awhile ago, standing in my kitchen, I responded to something my partner said (likely about current events) with, "Seriously?!"

A few seconds later, Siri says, "What can I help you with?" My phone was plugged in across the room at the time.

You can bet your ass I figured out what that was all about and shut it down. (Apparently, Apple had pushed out an update that automatically enabled no-touch activation for Siri). NOPE.

(The fact that I even have a smart phone causes me great agita, but my dumb phone bit the dust and Tracfone offered refurb iPhones at a ridiculous price with no commitment. So here I am).

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Amanda Matthews's picture

@WaterLily

Knows the answer.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews

patented and used in various meditation and self-help tapes which were advertised and I personally suspect it saw use elsewhere as a propaganda tool, the idea being that the unconsciously heard words and phrases affected the subconscious.

One name for it was, if I recall correctly, Clear Channel but this was changed to something else I can't recall just now, perhaps because there was a right-wing media company either called Clear Channel itself or calling one media business that, started; I believe that was Romney? or someone similar who was involved with/owned that.

If I only had a brain, I could probably remember enough details to try looking the tech patents, etc., up, but my searches so often turn up only unrelated stuff even when I do that I'd rather not bother trying with such fuzzy generalities, and my curiosity about this isn't high.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Ellen North

and twirked to the point where it’s invasive and can be used against us by everyone. By cell phone makers, by law enforcement, hackers, whoever for whatever. It’s gotten so out- of- control that it’s almost a danger to even own. And FINALLY people are talkiing about the perils of it. It’s only been in the past couple years that people are finally beginning to see to what a threat it really is

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews

to potentially steal money rather than brains.

Money matters; freely-thinking people are a hazard to the system.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Azazello

I'd used up my access before attempting the first link and found the 2nd depressing but interesting.

Who the hell would want something finishing their sentences for them? It drives most people nuts when people do it. This even if they don't mind repeating predetermined thoughts deemed suitable by anybody else, let alone a machine programed to maintain a status quo which cannot tolerate dissent or individuality.

Makes me think of that planet in A Wrinkle In Time where absolute conformity was demanded by a single controlling mind and people were turned into loveless machines - this sounds appallingly like a suitable method for achieving that.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

thanatokephaloides's picture

I always had my suspicions of just the kind of problems this essay discusses.....

Sad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

snoopydawg's picture

Or something like it from Google. Hell I don't even keep my cellphone in the same room with me and I taped over the little camera on my iPad.

People who buy these items are probably the same ones who say that "they have nothing to hide so why should they care if their government is spying on them."?

What they don't understand is that their government can plant evidence on their computers, phones or on the computer run apps in their car. Or if when the shit hits the fan the government can shut down their cars. Or make them crash? Michael Hastings ....?? maybe.

Amazon's new service will allow their delivery drivers to unlock your home to put your purchases inside. And yes there are people who are letting them do this.

There's a sucker born every minute

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

and in the 1st winter after moving in, we did without heat for days waiting and having the furnace checked out to discover that the problem was a low battery in the freaking thermostat, which has to be among the stupidest and most wasteful things I've ever heard of.

What the hell was wrong with the manual sliding/dial-type control that was so easy to use, didn't require the use of polluting batteries and never broke down? Digital appliances and such household crap are bad enough, far more environmentally polluting, far more likely to break down and far more expensive to fix when it does, when there are 40 - 50 year old stoves and other appliances still functional. The whole concept of 'smart appliances' are insane in all respects.

This, to me, typifies the suicidal idiocy of corporate interests at a time when the ecology and the Poors of the 99% are being killed off seemingly as rapidly as possible in this looting phase...

All I can say to them is, "Keep It Simple, Stupid, you corporate interests don't even pay your workers enough to buy your products in the first place; you're killing off your customer base and the planet, thereby making your business and money worthless anyway."

That and "Go greener, or go extinct." Not that it ought to be their choice about whether we live or die anyway.

And, apart from all else, the 'cashless society' makes everything - all commerce and the ability to obtain anything in an emergency - impossible in any state of emergency involving the loss of power/internet, something increasingly likely to happen with increasing frequency. Assuming that the banks don't simply seize depositors money anyway leaving everyone destitute.

These combined dystopian notions make it easy to control populations by controlling/freezing everything they own, and need to be fought tooth and nail.

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.