The Alternate Reality News Service asked three of its senior advice columnists to meet to discuss their role in times of social and technological brouhaha. Amritsar Al-Falloudjianapour writes about love and romance and technology. The Tech Answer Guy writes about technology and everything except love and romance. The Language Corrector Dude, well, it should be pretty obvious what he writes about.
The Language Corrector Dude: Actually, you would have been more correct in your usage of English if you had written: what he writes about should be pretty obvious.
You see? The forum was moderated by Alternate Reality News Service Editrix-in-Chief Brenda Brundtland-Govanni.
1.
Brenda Brundtland-Govanni: Let's get this over with as quickly as possible - I have a public editing at four. Now that we've plunged headfirst into the empty pool of the 21st century, what value, if any, do you think people find in advice columns?
Amritsar Al-Falloudjianapour: Oh, advice columns are stunningly important. In the 12th century, all people had to worry about was who their parents wanted them to marry and how to avoid the plague - sometimes both at once. As society has grown more complex, and we've developed a lot of more exotic illnesses, it has become harder and harder for the average person to find a path to a happy and fulfilling life. And, that doesn't even take into account cat to human translators! As the human race strolls blindly, if somewhat astringently, into an increasingly technology-dominated world, advice givers are more important than ever!
The Tech Answer Guy: I just try to keep dumb people from making dumb mistakes.
The Language Corrector Dude: I, uhh, I don't understand what I'm doing here. I mean, that wasn't a language question.
Brundtland-Govanni: We needed a fourth to make the panel more impressive. Also, we may play bridge if we have a spare few minutes after we're done. Just answer the question as best you can.
The Language Corrector Dude: Uhh, okay, well...new technologies - like Twitter, right? People experiment with language, and...and they need somebody to slap them down when they get too...creative. Somebody to remind them how to, you know, write proper.
The Tech Answer Guy: You? Hunh. Nice bowtie!
The Language Corrector Dude: Have respect for the Monarch!
The Tech Answer Guy: I have lots of respect for the Monarch! I ooze respect for the ferking Monarch out of every orifice of my body! Only, I never imagined the Queen being orange!
Amritsar Al-Falloudjianapour: Oh, aren't you just the pinnacle of sartorial splendour!
The Tech Answer Guy: Oh, yeah? Well I - you - what?
The Language Corrector Dude: Sartorial. Of or relating to a tailor, tailoring or tailored clothing. Splendour. Magnificent appearance or display. I think she was making fun of your jeans and - what do you call it?
Al-Falloudjianapour: On most men, it would be called a muscle shirt. On him, let's be generous and call it a lack of muscle shirt.
The Language Corrector Dude: And your lack of muscle shi -
The Tech Answer Guy: Okay. Yeah. I get it. I keep meaning to go to the gym, but there's always a Tim Hortons just before I get there. No matter what route I take, there's always a Tim Hortons. What can I say? All roads lead to -
Brundtland-Govanni: CAN WE GET BACK TO THE POINT HERE, PLEASE?
Al-Falloudjianapour: Which was...?
Brundtland-Govanni: Erm...the Internet is full of people who offer advice to others. What qualifies you to give advice more than them?
Al-Falloudjianapour: Anybody can give advice to anybody else. The question is, do you trust them to give you good advice? Trust is built on positive experience. So, you have to look at the experience of the person giving the advice. I am happy to say that, in over seventeen years of giving advice to Alternate Reality News Service readers, I have had only six of the people I advised commit suicide. Only six! That's a better suicide to years of service ratio than Dear Abby. Really! Look it up if you don't believe me!
The Tech Answer Guy: I have a miter saw.
Brundtland-Govanni: A miter saw?
The Tech Answer Guy: Absolutely. My mighty miter helps me cut through people's bullshit.
Brundtland-Govanni: I see. And, uhh, Language Corrector Dude?
The Language Corrector Dude: Oh. Uhh. I never thought about it, really. I guess...umm...I suppose it could be -
Al-Falloudjianapour: That you know things?
The Language Corrector Dude: Sure. I know things.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Things...other people don't know.
The Language Corrector Dude: Right. Right. I know things that other people don't know.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Aaaaboooouuuut...
The Language Corrector Dude: Oh! Of course. Language usage. I know things that other people don't know about language usage! You know - words and stuff.
2.
Brundtland-Govanni: What do you think is the major obstacle to people's happiness in our high tech world?
Al-Falloudjianapour: I think -
The Language Corrector Dude: What do you mean by "happiness?"
Brundtland-Govanni: What?
The Language Corrector Dude: Well, when you ask us about happiness, are you asking about the emotions experienced when in a state of well being? Or, are you asking about a state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy?
Brundtland-Govanni: Umm...either one.
Al-Falloudjianapour: In that case -
The Language Corrector Dude: It's not that simple. Happiness is used in a variety of ways in a variety of contexts. Some people think that happiness is a warm puppy. Others thing that happiness is a warm gun. Still others think that happiness is a warm blartvogle.
Brundtland-Govanni: You wanna know how I would define happiness at this very moment?
The Language Corrector Dude: Yes.
Brundtland-Govanni: YOU SHUTTING THE FERK UP AND ALLOWING SOMEBODY ELSE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION!
The Tech Answer Guy smirks.
The Tech Answer Guy: Saw that one coming...
Brundtland-Govanni: Amritsar, you were about to say...?
Al-Falloudjianapour: I think that people make the mistake of thinking that technology will solve their emotional or relationship problems, and it simply doesn't work that way.
The Tech Answer Guy: Except for Angry Firkins.
Al-Falloudjianapour: I'm sorry?
The Tech Answer Guy: Angry Firkins. Aaaaaaaaangry Fiiiiiirkiiiins. Computer game. Highly addictive. Surely, you have heard of it.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Yes, I know what Angry Firkins is. What does it have to do with what I was saying?
The Tech Answer Guy: Tossing firkins at complex but highly unstable wooden structures allows players to release pent up aggression. That makes it much easier for them to deal with emotional or relationship problems. So, Angry Firkins is one technology that actually does help solve people's problems.
Al-Falloudjianapour: I hardly think that -
The Tech Answer Guy: Uh ah ah. According to "What the Ferk is a Firkin? Are Games Better Than Prozac, Or Should Researchers Take a Pill?" a peer reviewed article that was published in FHM, people who played the game were 97 per cent less likely to become depressed, alcoholics or Shriners.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Oh, really? What about...what about if nanobots in your toothpaste that are supposed to get rid of plaque actually turn your girlfriend into a rabid Three Stooges fan?
The Tech Answer Guy: Awkward. But, not insurmountable. Play an hour of Angry Firkins, and you'll start to see the artistry in the Three Stooges yourself.
Al-Falloudjianapour: What if you're the captain of a starship that comes across a planet with a new, peaceful form of intelligent life. All of your crew are very excited, of course, but within days of making first contact every member of the alien race is dead, and you don't know who to apologize to for bringing the microbes that killed them to the planet. What about that?
The Tech Answer Guy: Piece a cake. After a couple of hours playing Angry Firkins, you decide to plant evidence in their computer systems that the aliens were planning on attacking Earth. So, when you get home, instead of facing charges of genocide, you're actually a hero for killing them all.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Okay.
The Tech Answer Guy: That the best you got?
Al-Falloudjianapour: Oh, I'm just getting started. What if somebody developed a computer programme that allowed him - it's always a him who comes up with these ideas - to see light bulbs going off above people's heads in a display in his smart glasses. Not only does it do that, but it actually sends Alfred waves to the person he's looking at, which causes the person to come up with the design for a keyboard that would allow even an autistic chimpanzee to type 500 words a minute.
So, you're just walking along, minding your own business, wondering how long you will be able to keep your spouse in the dark about your Jersey Shore obsession, when - POW! OUT OF THE BLUE you come up with this new keyboard design. And, you have no idea what to do with it. After all, you're not an inventor. Or a zookeeper. This just makes you angry and confused. Will playing Angry Firkins help you out?
The Tech Answer Guy: Hmm. I have to think about that one. Oh, no, I don't. The answer is yes. After three hours of playing the game, you'll get in touch with a patent attorney who will advise you on how much money you can make off your invention. Oh, and I think you got the name of the brainwaves that cause you to be calm and creative wrong. They're Alfredo waves.
The Language Corrector Dude: Actually -
Al-Falloudjianapour: Well, uhh, alright, then. I guess Angry Firkins is a technology that does actually help people solve their problems. Still, most technologies do not.
The Tech Answer Guy: Actually -
Al-Falloudjianapour: Most. Technologies. Do. Not.
The Tech Answer Guy: Agreed.
3.
Brundtland-Govanni: One subject that hasn't come up yet is sex. Now -
The Language Corrector Dude: Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. I don't - just no.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Sex is an important part of any healthy romantic relationship, Dude.
The Language Corrector Dude: Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god!
The Tech Answer Guy: Dude! Uncool!
The Language Corrector Dude: No words can convey - oh, god! Oh, god! Oh -
Brenda Brundtland-Govanni slaps The Language Corrector Dude. Long, stunned pause.
Brundtland-Govanni: This is the part where you're supposed to say, "Thanks. I needed that."
The Language Corrector Dude: Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god!
Brundtland-Govanni: (over him) Yet another example of movies lying to us! If I didn't enjoying slapping people for the feeling of flesh on flesh...!
The Language Corrector Dude: (moans) Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god!
Al-Falloudjianapour: Dude! Do you have a happy place?
The Language Corrector Dude: Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god!
Al-Falloudjianapour: (louder) Dude! DO YOU HAVE A HAPPY PLACE?
The Language Corrector Dude: A happy...place?
Al-Falloudjianapour: Do you have one?
The Language Corrector Dude: Sure. The, uhh, the Library of Congress.
The Tech Answer Guy: Figures.
Brundtland-Govanni: Watch it! The slapping glove does not discriminate!
The Tech Answer Guy: Sorry.
Al-Falloudjianapour: I want you to go there now while we talk about...what you don't want to talk about. Can you do that for me?
The Language Corrector Dude: O...okay.
Brundtland-Govanni: Okay. I'm wondering what role new technologies play in se - I mean, human se - uhh...human doing it.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Well! Human...you know is a very fraught subject. It -
The Tech Answer Guy: Hee hee. You said frott.
Al-Falloudjianapour: There's nothing dirty about the word fraught!
The Tech Answer Guy: There is when it's the start of frottage.
Al-Falloudjianapour: If I had intended to say that human sexuality is -
The Language Corrector Dude: (moaning) Oh, eighteenth century first edition of Lawrence Sterne's Shirley, A Milke Maide's Taile, is there nothing you can't teach us about the perfect form of the novel?
Al-Falloudjianapour: If I had meant to say...it was a frottage subject, I would have said it was a frottage subject! But, I didn't, did I?
Brundtland-Govanni: And, the point you were trying to make was...?
Al-Falloudjianapour: I think that there are a lot of factors in why people do or do not get se - physi - umm, why they don't enjoy doing it as much as they could. Pressure to perform, obviously. A lack of basic understanding of how to please a partner. Other -
The Tech Answer Guy: Hey! I've never had any complaints!
Al-Falloudjianapour: Was I talking about you?
The Tech Answer Guy: You were - looking - eye contact - never mind.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Other psychological issues can get in the way of pleasure. There -
The Language Corrector Dude: (to himself) Twenty-seven copies of Murder on the Orient Express? That seems a tad excessive...
Al-Falloudjianapour: Gritting my teeth, I continue. There are so many factors that contribute to bad...getting it on. I would caution people against adding technology to the list.
The Tech Answer Guy: Balls!
Al-Falloudjianapour: Lovely.
Brundtland-Govanni: Tech Answer Guy?
The Tech Answer Guy: Anything that makes it easier for people to get jiggy with each other is fine by me!
4.
Brundtland-Govanni: Lately, I have noticed a lot of articles coming into the newsroom about people having relationships with robots. Is cyborg love the next step in human evolution, or a dead end for the species that alienates us from other human beings by encouraging seemingly deep but ultimately sterile relationships with objects that project the illusion of emotional depth without actually possessing it?
Al-Falloudjianapour: What a thoughtful and, if I may say so, insightful question! There are many -
The Tech Answer Guy: You wrote that question yourself, didn't you?
Al-Falloudjianapour: ...ways of approaching - what? That's irrelevant.
The Tech Answer Guy: She wrote the question herself.
The Language Corrector Dude: It's obvious.
Al-Falloudjianapour: IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO WROTE THE BLOODY QUESTION!
The Tech Answer Guy: Definitely her.
The Language Corrector Dude: Absolutely.
Brundtland-Govanni: Okay, enough of that. Let Amritsar answer her question.
The Tech Answer Guy: (under his breath) Told you.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Ahem... Some people are too shy, too socially awkward to develop romantic relationships with other people. Psychiatrists have a term for this: Too Shy and Socially Awkward to Develop Romantic Relationships Syndrome. Seriously. It's in the DM IV, Director's Cut. Relating to machines arguably gives them a measure of emotional comfort and connectedness that they wouldn't otherwise be able to achieve. To this extent, it's a good thing.
The problem, though, is that people without Too Shy and Socially Awkward to Develop Romantic Relationships Syndrome could use machines in ways that retard - and, I use the word in its clinical sense, so, please, no letters - their relationships with other people. A man who is always fighting with his wife about which denture adhesive she uses could withdraw from their relationship into the arms of their AI-enhanced washing machine. This would -
The Language Corrector Dude: There's nothing wrong with talking to your AI-enhanced washing machine.
Al-Falloudjianapour: I...I beg your pardon?
The Language Corrector Dude: Sometimes, a washing machine can understand your problems better than a partner can. Washing machines have a simple wisdom that cuts through the nonsense of everyday life and quickly gets to something profound. I mean, all life is ultimately just a cycle of wash-rinse-wash-dry repeat, isn't it? Besides, washing machines are terrific listeners.
Long pause.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Okay. Umm...okay. Thanks for that. You know, Dude, maybe you and I should have a long talk when this forum is finished...
Brundtland-Govanni: Tech Answer Guy - your thoughts on...umm...whatever we were supposed to be talking about?
The Tech Answer Guy: Yeah, well, first off, let me just say that what a man does with a washing machine in the privacy of his own home is nobody else's business.
The Language Corrector Dude: Or a laundromat.
The Tech Answer Guy: A what?
The Language Corrector Dude: What a man does with a washing machine in the privacy of his own laundromat is nobody else's business.
The Tech Answer Guy: Do you own the laundromat?
The Language Corrector Dude: No. Is that important?
Pause.
The Tech Answer Guy: Secondly, as more and more of us get prosthetic enhancements, the line between human being and machine blurs. Now, I ain't saying it's gonna be erased completely or nothing. I'm just saying.
Brundtland-Govanni: Still, Tech Answer Guy...robots?
The Tech Answer Guy: Aww, people get emotionally attached to all sorts of shit. Pets. Money. Andy Warhol lithographs. At least artificial intelligence enhanced robots can give something back to them. Or, if that don't float yer boat, look at it this way: a robot ain't nothin' but a vibrator with legs.
The Language Corrector Dude: Aah ah! Codex! Dewey decimal system! CARDBOARD COVEEEEEEEERRRRRRRS!
5.
Al-Falloudjianapour: (quietly) Remember: deep breaths. In and out. In and out...
Brundtland-Govanni: So, panelists: final words?
The Language Corrector Dude: Obsolescence. Defenestration. Pudding. Post-recreational stress disorder. Oh, and...and...it's on the tip of my - TONGUE!
Al-Falloudjianapour: That's it?
The Language Corrector Dude: She asked me for last words.
Al-Falloudjianapour: Are you always so literal?
The Language Corrector Dude: It's what I do.
Brundtland-Govanni: Amritsar - last words?
Al-Falloudjianapour: L'enfer, c'est les autre ecrivains!
The Language Corrector Dude: Can you repeat that in English?
Al-Falloudjianapour: Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?
The Language Corrector Dude: As a matter of fact -
Brundtland-Govanni: Tech Answer Guy?
The Tech Answer Guy: Shouldn't we let them finish?
Brundtland-Govanni: Any. Final. Words?
The Tech Answer Guy: Uhh. Yeah. Sure. Okay. Be good to each other and your garden tools. You may not always have each other, but you'll always have to kill weeds. Bastards.
Brundtland-Govanni: Great. Thanks, everybody.
Pause.
Brundtland-Govanni: Okay, Looks like I've got an hour to kill - wanna cut for partners?