DEAR JANO!

Given the inability to contact you directly, allow me to interact through the classic use of the letter. No letterhead, no known address, I want to express some considerations that I hope one day you can process, understand and even respond. I know your current limitations and you could even reproach me now that I suffer from a certain anxiety disorder when trying to communicate with a voice assistant. But the truth is, you have enough to efficiently manage the vaccination notice for the Earthlings of Cantabria. By the way, it doesn’t matter that you occasionally make mistakes because in the end you will get paid the same. Dr. Simón also makes mistakes when he is human.

I see you connected to the present making good the iconic principle of “no is no”; just by pronouncing the user’s refusal to any question of yours and even if the “no” is justified, you cut your losses and cancel the appointment option. Of course, you always grant new opportunities and I must thank you, that, unlike other virtual entities, you do not demand that we demonstrate our human origin.

I insist: Thank you Jano! For that and for your superlative agility to contact people without any emotional loss. You are an almost perfect collaborator who cannot receive complaints or clarifications. A model that emerged in the midst of a pandemic, which shies away from physical and sound contact in the name of efficiency and whose noble drivers are the Administration and Banks. We will talk about the latter …

COVID is the great excuse to reduce the burden of personal care, and consequently the brutal deterioration of services. We will always have the invaluable protection of the security guards who guard the buildings, the first line of reception to provide a saturated phone number or a loaded website.

If you could think, surely you would believe that I am a denier of technology. Nothing further. Digital services have emerged as essential tools during this unusual time. Thanks to them, we have not fully succumbed to economic and social collapse. Look at teaching, commerce, telecommuting, telemedicine, social and entertainment networks. And we must continue to push for new developments and applications. But that if, with sufficient resources, without exclusion or imposition and as long as it implies an advance in social welfare and not the other way around.

Neither you, nor your talented creators, I can blame you for anything. I think you know what I’m talking about …

You will soon have competition with models of your species evolved into humanoid form. They will be slender, elegant and with a seductive voice.

Also, you need to prepare for when the current nightmare subsides and finally ends. You will have to disconnect like old toys and suffer a controlled deprogramming. No more having the crowd’s phone book.

It will be a great day for all of us and it will surely be indifferent for you. If you stored any emotion, even if it was virtual, you could feel proud of your work. Especially when the authorities review your service record.

By the way, Janus in Roman mythology is the god of doors, beginnings and endings.

I really hope, in this ending, not to hear you again …

 

Juan Carlos Ramos

TERA Cluster Manager