One Mile Walk

Gadgets and Privacy

         We're expecting snow this afternoon, so I took my walk early. I stopped to chat with a neighbor two doors up. We got into a discussion of gadgets and software. I said I have five Alexa devices in my house.
         He was flabbergasted... and against using Google Echo Dots anywhere; at home, at work, at school, anyplace. He fears security, privacy, and big brother listening in.
         I think we have no real privacy any more... for some time...so why not use the gadgets. They can a quite helpful. If we behave openly and socially acceptable all the time, then what do we need to keep secret?
         Yes, big brother is listening, but there are glitches in the process. I've noticed Alexa's response times are poor between 06:00-07:30 in the mornings. That is when the "Internet of Things" slows down the bandwidth significantly in our area. We have Alexa start the coffee at 06:00, then play a song to help us wake up at 06:30. Sometimes she plays it, sometimes only part of it, sometimes she has to restart it, and sometimes she ignores it altogether. And once we awoke to unheated coffee.
         I figure the (cell and PC) app isn't sophisticated enough to perform the translation of the voice input, or routines, into real executable commands. That has to be done by relaying to Google's main computers out at their secret Timbuktu location.
         So with all the traffic of things ramping up before breakfast I can see where the computing load should be done locally. Maybe Google's greed for information has sort of shot themselves in the foot. If Alexa can't handle it, some entrepreneur will come up with a better solution.
         Maybe all these gadgets are isolating me, with Alexa as a companion, and my fascination of the computer chats (Zoom, Webex, etc.) even in my own neighborhoods? Only on my daily walks, with occasional encounters with neighbors, do I have a grasp of local reality.
         Just today, I found out the neighbor between us had died in an accident last week. It wasn't until I talked to the neighbor two doors up and read the obits in the weekly paper did I know.
         I have no words to send his wife and kids because I never really met them. Just saw him mowing the lawn or blowing the leaves several times. And I feel sympathy words from a stranger are hollow, pro forma, and at worst, insulting of a person's real self. It is best to stay silent and let the family grieve in peace.
C.Don