Robots

I don't know how many people have seen the movie "iRobot," but just in case you haven't here is a short overview of the plot:  It's about a robot that is created that is sort of an intelligence to all other robots.  The robots are used to serve humans and were designed to protect us.  However, the robot intelligence evolves and starts creating robots that go so far in wanting to protect humans that they want to lock them all up and completely control them.  They do this with violence if necessary.  I liked the movie and even have speculated on whether or not technology will one day rule the way it did in the movie.  After today I feel completely at peace about it though.  I called two different businesses that both answered me with a machine and a menu.  The bank had the "smartest" machine voice.  In this one it asks you to speak into the phone and tell you what you want.  Pretty incredible!  This allows people to check their account without even talking to a real person. Great, right? Not!  I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out the right words to get the robot to understand that I wanted to talk to a person about my account.  I told it I had questions, that I wanted to talk to a person, and that I was tired of listening to its robotic, confused voice.  Finally I called my mom to ask her how to get past the machine.  When she answered I almost shouted, "Holy goodness!  It is so good to hear the voice of a real person again!"  However, I contained myself.  She told me that if you keep saying "customer service" it will eventually lead you to the operator.  How helpful real people can be.  I love that when talking to a real person they have the ability to understand what you are saying and give you the correct information to fix your problem.  I was feeling even more happy about talking to real people when I got a hold of an operator who kindly answered all my questions that I could never have learned the answers to from a robot.  I don't think robots have come to a point where they can take over the world quite yet, so don't be worrying about iRobot coming true.