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An Alabama landline that keeps ringing

oxfordamerican.org

21–30 of 113 posts

Re: An Alabama landline that keeps ringing

#21

Somewhere someone is probably still working as an elevator operator too. Like when I was a kid I had a job shoveling coal into a boiler. And someone is still manufacturing buggy whips. The future is unevenly distributed. Call Bunny Watson and ask her, she'll confirm.

There's probably some high bureaucracy workplace somewhere where only certain people are allowed to use the freight elevator but it needs to be used by others so much they just station someone who can use it there.

Re: An Alabama landline that keeps ringing

#22
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AI can provide both the human connection and the answers.

It is a severe reach to say that AI can provide human connection. At best, it can provide the illusion, for some. And for those people, I'm not going to say that that's not valuable or legitimate for them. But it's pushing it one step too far to imply that that's a good idea for everyone.

God help us if we determine there is nothing special about human cognition. A lot of people are putting a lot of faith in what amounts to the soul. I’m not at all sure it exists.

Re: An Alabama landline that keeps ringing

#25

800-GOOG-411 was planned to do a similar thing; the difference is that was online for 3 years and unceremoniously shut down, versus this one which is still in operation 72 years later.

Google has squandered so much good will over the years. This is a good example: expenses wouldn't even be a rounding error, and it could have given so many average folks a positive experience with the company.

Re: An Alabama landline that keeps ringing

#26

Somewhere someone is probably still working as an elevator operator too. Like when I was a kid I had a job shoveling coal into a boiler. And someone is still manufacturing buggy whips. The future is unevenly distributed. Call Bunny Watson and ask her, she'll confirm.

I visited a shopping mall in India in 2019 that still employed elevator operators.

Re: An Alabama landline that keeps ringing

#27

Somewhere someone is probably still working as an elevator operator too. Like when I was a kid I had a job shoveling coal into a boiler. And someone is still manufacturing buggy whips. The future is unevenly distributed. Call Bunny Watson and ask her, she'll confirm.

As recently as five years ago, the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Ave. in Chicago employed elevator operators. It probably still does.

Re: An Alabama landline that keeps ringing

#28

800-GOOG-411 was planned to do a similar thing; the difference is that was online for 3 years and unceremoniously shut down, versus this one which is still in operation 72 years later.

Google has squandered so much good will over the years. This is a good example: expenses wouldn't even be a rounding error, and it could have given so many average folks a positive experience with the company.

I'm still using 2 RSS readers (Inoreader and TheOldReader) that I switched to after Google Reader shut down.

Re: An Alabama landline that keeps ringing

#29

800-GOOG-411 was planned to do a similar thing; the difference is that was online for 3 years and unceremoniously shut down, versus this one which is still in operation 72 years later.

Google has squandered so much good will over the years. This is a good example: expenses wouldn't even be a rounding error, and it could have given so many average folks a positive experience with the company.

It probably would have turned into a customer service line for all of their products they notoriously fail to adequately support.

Re: An Alabama landline that keeps ringing

#30
post #3

how far is the deep learning stack close to replacing them?

They were already “replaced” by the internet decades ago, but people keep calling. As the article explains, there are still people in the US without access to the internet or knowledge of how to use it, as well as a lot of people who just want to talk to a human being.

You can call 1-800-CHATGPT if you want, but there’s clearly still a place for this service.

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