Ha I hear you. And another issue is that the hardware isn’t exactly simple, I think there’s like 6 mics in an Echo for example. And it’s nice to have that level of sensitivity, I’m amazed how well it hears commands from a distance.
Interesting. Personally I don’t mind relying on the Echo ecosystem, I don’t really care if my specific commands are shared with whoever (if someone wants to know about me listening to WFMU on my Echo, have at it). The skills are pretty useful. I just don’t want the thing eavesdropping on me when I’m not actually using it.
But yeah, bring on the open source alternative that’s sold in kit or fully assembled form! I’d imagine there’d be a really good market for it.
And shameless plug: most of the apps for the Echo suck, but I built one that was actually nominally useful. I can’t imagine why they rejected it from their app store:
I don’t think that’s quantifiable on anything other than an individual basis, but keep in mind that this technology didn’t exist 20 years ago.
Good example. My brother-in-law can’t hold a job any more; he was a hard working engineer and space scientist who made important contributions to the MMS mission and various space telescopes (particularly the Hubble, but also SOHO) for decades, but his stroke left him in need of assistance for even the simplest tasks.
So for him holding a job is not an issue like it is for you. On the other claw, not having a cybernetic assistant with vast processing capacity and an always-on microphone would definitely be a degradation of his quality of life, just as I assume joblessness would be for you… maybe it’s the same issue after all!
