I'm all for competition as it forces the players to innovate to stay even or move ahead. However, I can't think of ANY instance where I would want a phone (or any computerized gadget) to be able to essentially read my mind and act as a surrogate HUMAN personal assistant (or heck, act as a surrogate ME). Have we become so lazy that we want gadgets to predict/monitor everything that's going on in our lives?
And I know it's fun to mock the "conspiracy theorists" out there, but have you ever just taken a step back and objectively looked at the information we've entrusted to online software giants who we absurdly think have our best interest, privacy and confidentiality at heart? I mean, we're the same nation that just a few years ago was so up in arms about receiving telephone solicitations on our home phones that the government set up a program so we could opt out of that "invasive" practice. Now we want some online mega-company to go through all of our stuff to find out what we like/need/do and where we go and when and with whom?
Folks I don't care what these companies say about whether they retain personal information on us and if so, how much and for how long. What matters is that someone other than us has this information and THAT someone is subject to court/government subpoena power and instances of blind greed by selling the info to the highest bidder. Not to mention someone taking it surreptitiously by hacking.
You guys want a handheld cyborg that stores personal information about us and those who communicate with us both on and off-site and then, after reviewing and analyzing our personal information, uses artificial intelligence to tell us what's going on in our lives?
Sheesh, I thought criminalizing biggie-sized sodas while legalizing drugs was off the chart, now comes this.
<Gets down off soapbox and puts on tinfoil hat>
