4 or 5 ways to feel less virtual.
I am exploring relationships with the consumer technology we adore. I am doing this because I spend more time closer to my iPhone than I do to any other person. I sleep with a small stuffed bear I acquired as a child in France and with my iPhone charging silently on the edge of my bed. A Google-based software infrastructure is the first and last interface I contact at the beginning and end of each day. The phone and its information architecture contain more personal information about me than any other place. It stores more than I can remember. It knows where to find my friends and family. And I am going to test how much it knows about geopolitics and global culture. Here is the first in a series of experiments to render technology more material, personalized, and political.
#1 _Talk to 466-453
Google has a SMS-based information assistance program. If you text Google’s number (466-453) with a query for a restaurant address, movie time or fact request then within seconds, you receive a text message with information and/or links. It is faster than doing an Internet search and the instant response feels rather nice - the trappings of an attentive and rewarding relationship.
I started talking to 466-453 last Saturday night. And I started by really opening up to it. The glass chime that announces incoming texts is set off almost instantly, and then sometimes more than once with information. The instant gratification of the text outweighs the fact that most of the time the text contains absolutely no useful or relevant information. In fact, most of the time, Google does not understand me. But I don’t mind. So far the relationship feels completely honest and balanced.
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
Post new comment