Nurse Software and Sour Drinks

In The Economist latest Technology Quarterly there was an article about intelligent computer systems that screen your surroundings and control your information needs. Say for example that an incoming phone call is not relevant to you at the minute it arrives, then your phone either puts it on hold, or connect it to voice-mail. The same thing might happen when someone sends you an e-mail. If you're flying, driving a car or are a soldier in combat, under fire, the same thing will happen. Your equipment decides what information is necessary and/or suitable for you and disregards the rest. The time of day, the weather, the position of your body, the amount of sweat, the beating of your heart, these are some of the factors that are used to decide what to do with the call, the e-mail, the information.

I find it mesmerizing. How long will it be until we humans don't have to do anything at all, just sit in our gardens reading a good book while our machines do all the dirty work?

I have developed my own system. I turn of the phone, or my e-mail program, when I don't want to be disturbed. But sometimes it would be nice to have an intelligent system even in your private life. If you can't turn of the phone because some hot date is gonna call, but you don't want your boss to call and say that you must work, then it would be wonderful if the phone told your boss that you were unavailable, while putting the call from the date through the second it arrived. Oh, I know what "Q" would say about that: "It has not been perfected after years of hard work entirely for that purpose 007."

Tonight's drink was Passion Punch. It was OK. It looked great but it was too sour for my taste. C had similar objections.