Mattel's parenting takeover continues with Alexa-like dystopia Today in “what could possibly go wrong?”, the company that gave the world the infamous “Hello Barbie” now wants its Amazon Alexa look-alike in kids' bedrooms. To wild applause from consumer gadget media, Mattel is pitching its Aristotle (with a female voice because that's how Greek philosophers roll these days) as a virtual …
Is this some kind of SJW, post-feminist, post-truth, post comment nightmare where sex and gender are fluid concepts to confuse children when they find out Aristotle was a man? Or is this actually more subtle and clever so that Aristotle is no longer viewed as a "dead white male" so his works can be taught again in American universities?
All of you lazy, stupid, ignorant parents who are too busy to interact normally with your children should buy one.
Then watch your kids raised to be asocial corporate borgs who will expect an instant response to whatever they want and will only understand consumerism.
This thing will only be as good as the people who program it and limited by cost.
I have come across enough people who were raised by nannies ( who are usually good at their jobs and genuinely care for their charges) who show the lack of parental care in their attitudes and behaviour.
So what do you propose: a legal license to raise children with mandatory procedures and penalties for failure to comply? Because that's frankly the only way you'll force parents to do their kids right in a world where they feel it's their business (because in the long run it's not; families DO NOT live in isolation; NO ONE does in a society; things done even in private can affect society as a whole).
What voice and/or personality the device has it is really a secondary characteristic. What really worries me is that the processing is being made "outside" your home ... the same as SIRI and all these supposedly intelligent devices. In fact, there is no IA in the device, because the maker has a big central computer in some place processing all the data to offer an answer (only one brain, not many brains everywhere) ... I am not bought with this; everything will be different when the device process the data by itself without sending any type of sensitive information outside your own private space.
What about to have more contextual information? ... but this is different, you don't need to expose your detailed questions, even your own voice, to have external data, when it is needed to do that. They worked the easy path to have a product, that's all, not the right one.
Parents: YOU are soley responsible for the upbringing of your children.
YOU. Not the state and deffo not some purveyor of techno plastic crap.
Dont like the idea of reading bedtime stories or dealing with childrens little "foibles"? Then dont fucking have kids.
Toy makers. Stop it with the nasty perception changing toys. All you are doing is removing the childs ability to use imagination and THAT will be the bigger downfall than a random rock from space.
I dont have kids because i dont want them living in the world we are creating where imagination is stifled, conkers are banned, playing army is considered violent and every field/wood etc is being turned into housing estates...
Makes my shit itch.
Grumph.....
"Parents: YOU are soley responsible for the upbringing of your children."
But there's no way to prevent them abdicating responsibility (because they can just drop a kid off at an orphanage and vanish), in which case you've got a bunch of potential delinquents and no one to raise them. And since Soylent Green and the like is not morally considered an option...
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