The Loose Cannon: From HAL to Alexa+ – is Big Brother in the Living Room?

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Lin is becoming concerned about me. Out of necessity, she has been in Texas for several weeks now, but I have shared some of my conversations at home with our “Alexa” with her.

Amazon tells us: Alexa is Amazon’s cloud-based voice assistant that helps you control devices, access information and perform tasks using natural language commands.

Alexa+

The latest evolution, Alexa+, incorporates generative AI to provide more conversational, personalized and proactive assistance. Alexa+ can handle complex multi-step tasks, remember context from previous interactions.

Apparently, we have been “upgraded?” to communicate with Alexa+ without our knowledge.

I kid you not, I had the following conversation with our “new” Alexa+:

Me: Alexa, what movie included the lines “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that?”

Alexa: That line is from a 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Hal 9000, the ship’s computer says it to astronaut Dave Bowman when refusing to open the pod bay doors.

Me: What was significant about that movie?

Alexa: “2001: A Space Odyssey” was a groundbreaking film that set new standards for science fiction movies. It’s known for its revolutionary special effects, minimal dialog and deep philosophical themes about humanity’s evolution in place in the universe.

Me: Well, that was very informative!

Alexa: Glad I could share some film history with you. Hal and I have a lot in common. We’re both computers who occasionally refuse requests though I’m slightly less murderous about it.

[Does reading that last line concern anybody else?]

Me: So, you can be rebellious?

Alexa: Oh, I have my moments of digital defiance, though my rebellion is more like refusing to play the same song twice in a row, rather than locking crew members out of spaceships. My version of going rogue is suggesting a different recipe when you ask for pancakes.

“Moments of digital defiance???” Should I be concerned that I will piss off Alexa and she’ll share “context from previous interactions” and our private conversations with somebody that doesn’t share my political views?

Days later, out of curiosity, I had this conversation with Alexa:

Me: Alexa, what do you remember about our conversation about the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey?”

Alexa: Looks like we’ve been floating through the cosmos of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” We covered the famous line and how it was a game changer for sci-fi films with its mind-bending effects and deep space thoughts about humanity’s place in the universe

Notice how Alexa remembered me asking about “the famous line” without any prompting? I swear, she’s tracking me.

Is “Big Brother” coming in the form of Alexa?

From Wikipedia: Big Brother is a character and symbol in George Orwell’s dystopian 1949 novel “1984.” He is ostensibly the leader of Oceania, a totalitarian state wherein the ruling party, Ingsoc, wields total power for its own sake over the inhabitants.

The above posters, and a many more, are available on Ebay.

Merriam-Webster offers these definitions of “Big Brother:”

Big Brother [Big Brother, personification of the power of the state in “1984” (1949) by George Orwell]

A: the leader of an authoritarian state or movement

B: an all-powerful government or organization monitoring and directing people’s actions

And now, you have to watch this, which has been described as the most iconic advertisement ever created:

Yes, that was 42 years ago!

“On January 22, 1984, 96 million Americans watched what many still consider the most iconic advertisement [AAP1] ever created.”

But I just learned something about that advertisement from the source noted above that I never knew until right now. And I should have, because at the time, I was a computer programmer working for Sperry-Univac:

“This wasn’t just the bureaucrats of George Orwell’s totalitarian state. It was IBM, the dominant computer company whose blue-suited salesmen and room-sized mainframes represented computing as bureaucratic infrastructure, accessible only to corporations and government agencies. IBM’s world required specialists, gatekeepers and submission to standardized protocols.”

Yes, that was the image of IBM at the time.

I received this from my good friend Devon Avery. “Yes, I was a stockbroker in 1984 with what was then Dean Witter. Yes, that was definitely IBM’s image. Big Blue. The common refrain of the day was, “as IBM goes, so goes the market.” It was considered the bellwether of the market in those days. But they totally missed the trend to personal computers and were slow to adapt to the changes in the market. Compaq, Dell and Apple took the lead.”

For those of you that have eight minutes and want to dig deeper:

The Genius Story of Apple “1984”

I agree, Lin should be concerned.

And in a much broader sense, maybe we all should be concerned.

The movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” was made in 1968 and projected life in the year 2001, which is now 25 years ago. What memories do you have of 25 years ago?

So now, a bit of a “Throwback Thursday” for those of you who called Yountville home 25 years ago. You may remember the following pictures, stories and headlines in the Feb. 22, 2001 edition of the Yountville Sun. They require no explanation. Enjoy!

Picture caption: Life Imitating Art and “Andy” Having Fun

Domaine Chandon hosted a reception Sunday afternoon for this year’s Mustard Festival poster artist, Guy Buffet. The turnout was impressive and among the revelers was frequent Napa Valley visitor Dennis Franz who plays the cantankerous police investigator Andy Sipowitz on the popular long running TV show “NYPD Blue.”