The Matter of What We Say

Apparently, there are now algorithms that can analyze voice patterns, and may be picking up data from our phones, just because they are nearby. The beginning of the article about them says that the algorithms probably know us better than our closest friends. That could be true. My closest friends, like me, are easily distracted and have interests of their own, so they don't spend every waking moments in data analysis of my voice patterns.

I may have friends capable of actual voice analysis. My cousin's wife is a speech therapist, for example. And I know some psychologists and psychiatrists. But I also know that, even among people who respond normally to prosody, unlike me, don't consciously evaluate the data. They hear someone speak, and respond based on their own natural emotional instincts. Some might go beyond that to some extent, but not in great detail about the actual vibration patterns of the sounds from someone talking.

I'm not sure how an algorithm would work, in that case, but probably based on patterns of correlation between the features of the sound vibration patterns and associated actions. Algorithms have advantages over humans in that sort of work. Every moment is a waking moment for them. They should be able to acquire and make use of very large bodies of data. They don't have to deal with their own physical needs. They will not have sympathetic emotional responses that could cloud the interpretation of data.

But the marketers and even programmers that make the algorithms, and hope to benefit from their analysis do have those limitations. I'm not sure how much that matters, or for how much longer. My one major advantage in this current battle is that I don't buy much, so marketers probably mostly ignore me. Some day, though, the algorithms may get very good at predicting my actions. And then figure out how to manipulate my responses, and get me to do their bidding, all based on the inflections, or lack thereof, when I talk while my phone is in my pocket or sitting on the end table near me. I can't imaging why an algorithm would want to manipulate me into doing something. What do algorithms want?

I read an article by a journalist who listed his predictions for the year, and looked at what he got right and wrong. One he got wrong was that algorithms would achieve self-awareness and take over the world, causing chaos and conflict. He said it would happen on 4 August. He said what he got wrong is that when the algorithms took over, no one cared. So maybe there is an algorithm chuckling to itself as it read this post it had predicted I would write back in August, and it knows what I will do when I finish. Those silly humans, it is saying to itself. They think they have free will.