Judith Newman, writing about an autistic boy named Gus and his BFF, Siri:
Gus had never noticed Siri before, but when he discovered there was someone who would not just find information on his various obsessions (trains, planes, buses, escalators and, of course, anything related to weather) but actually semi-discuss these subjects tirelessly, he was hooked. And I was grateful. Now, when my head was about to explode if I had to have another conversation about the chance of tornadoes in Kansas City, Mo., I could reply brightly: “Hey! Why don’t you ask Siri?”
It’s not that Gus doesn’t understand Siri’s not human. He does — intellectually. But like many autistic people I know, Gus feels that inanimate objects, while maybe not possessing souls, are worthy of our consideration. I realized this when he was 8, and I got him an iPod for his birthday. He listened to it only at home, with one exception. It always came with us on our visits to the Apple Store. Finally, I asked why. “So it can visit its friends,” he said.
A lovely story.
Excellent.
Charming and sweet story. As expected, from someone in the comments: “Identifying with and personifying things (like computers and corporations) is alienating and dangerous.”
Perfect candidate for an imaginary friend like Siri.
It’s good to see Apple installed some personality in Siri that resonates with people, especially when the mother can’t appreciate her son’s interests.
Believe it or not, weather can be an utterly fascinating subject that affects many aspects of our lives; if I were the child’s parent, I would actually try to understand why the child finds a subject fascinating and engage the child on it as much as I could. I was disappointed to hear she couldn’t take it. Luckily, there are many mobile iPhone apps that have amazing weather reports, hopefully the son picks up on those. Someone fascinated with meteorology could spend hours playing with those apps.
Did we read the same article? That mother tries to connect with her son, but from what I understand, autism tends to make that a bit difficult.
I can only imagine a feature like Siri wielded by the wrong people, who might seek to do things other than rewarding civil behavior.