Seeing Problems Where We Might See Solutions

The future is coming at us like a freight train, which terrifies a certain slice of the NY Times demographic:

A Wi-Fi Barbie Doll With the Soul of Siri

Ever since Siri appeared as a regular feature on the iPhone, certain young children — and, let’s face it, some of their parents — have spent hours chatting up the virtual assistant, curious about the details of her humanoid back story.

Siri, where do you live? Siri, do you have a boyfriend? Siri, how old are you?

Which means there is a toy in your future grandchild's future:

Founded in 2011, ToyTalk already produces popular animated conversational apps — among them the Winston Show and SpeakaZoo — that encourage young children to engage in complex dialogue with a menagerie of make-believe characters. Now the company’s technology, originally designed for two-dimensional characters on-screen, is poised to power tangible playthings that children hold in their hands.

This fall, Mattel plans to introduce Hello Barbie, a Wi-Fi enabled version of the iconic doll, which uses ToyTalk’s system to analyze a child’s speech and produce relevant responses.

“She’s a huge character with an enormous back story,” Mr. Jacob says of Barbie. “We hope that when she’s ready, she will have thousands and thousands of things to say and you can speak to her for hours and hours.”

I know what you might be thinking - this could lead to a cultural shift that revolutionizes education and moves the needle on an important aspect of the Two Americas problem. Let's cut to The Economist on America's growing and seemingly intractable class divide:

Upbringing affects opportunity. Upper-middle-class homes are not only richer (with two professional incomes) and more stable; they are also more nurturing. In the 1970s there were practically no class differences in the amount of time that parents spent talking, reading and playing with toddlers. Now the children of college-educated parents receive 50% more of what Mr Putnam calls “Goodnight Moon” time (after a popular book for infants).

Educated parents engage in a non-stop Socratic dialogue with their children, helping them to make up their own minds about right and wrong, true and false, wise and foolish. This is exhausting, so it helps to have a reliable spouse with whom to share the burden, not to mention cleaners, nannies and cash for trips to the theatre.

Working-class parents, who have less spare capacity, are more likely to demand that their kids simply obey them. In the short run this saves time; in the long run it prevents the kids from learning to organise their own lives or think for themselves. Poor parenting is thus a barrier to social mobility, and is becoming more so as the world grows more complex and the rewards for superior cognitive skills increase.

That appeared in a review of Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam, but they also cite "Coming Apart" by Charles Murray.

It may seem obvious that a Siri-type doll might be able to read to and engage with a youngster in a way that represented an upgrade from the harried single mother working two jobs (or even the harried Super Mom grappling with kids, work and life.) And maybe that intellectual stimulation would level the class divide a bit. Maybe!

But that is not where the Times is headed. Spoiler Alert - their focus is on privacy and gender stereotyping:

It was probably inevitable that the so-called Internet of Things — those Web-connected thermostats and bathroom scales and coffee makers and whatnot — would beget the Internet of Toys. And just like Web-connected consumer gizmos that can amass details about their owners and transmit that data for remote analysis, Internet-connected toys hold out the tantalizing promise of personalized services and the risk of privacy perils.

“Is this going to be some creepy doll that records what is going on in your home without you knowing it?” asks Nicole A. Ozer, the director of technology and civil liberties at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. “What is being recorded? How long is it being stored? Who is it being shared with?”

They do note the educational opportunities:

The advent of connected toys that can record and talk back to children is likely to deepen this debate over the Internet of Things because of the potential for these intelligent toys to powerfully affect children’s imagination, learning and social development.

...

Sandra L. Calvert, the director of the Children’s Digital Media Center at Georgetown and the lead author of the study, said that toys able to personalize their responses to children in real time could have an even greater effect on them.

“These could be real cutting-edge approaches to facilitate children’s learning,” Dr. Calvert told me. But, she added, the toys’ impact would depend largely on the depth and breadth of their conversational abilities. “It’s only as good as the programmer,” she said.

It could be great but it might not be. Thank heaven for experts! 

And then we are back to privacy and other concerns:

But the notion of this technology, originally designed for mobile screens, incarnated in the body of Barbie is already generating controversy, even before the toy has been introduced.

ToyTalk and Mattel executives are fully aware that children’s advocates and feminists will be watching closely to see whether Hello Barbie challenges girls to think deeply or perpetuates beauty and gender stereotypes. Last fall, for instance, Mattel faced withering scorn when critics discovered that a children’s book titled “Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer” showed the character seeking help from male friends to code a game.

“Everybody involved is very aware of how carefully this content needs to be crafted,” Michael Shore, head of consumer insights at Mattel, told me earlier this week about Hello Barbie. “With this powerful a technology, this is something we need to be hypervigilant about.”

Hmm. The PC police will make monitoring interactive toys a full time job. Of course, pitch this as a new means of indoctrination (Islamic Barbie is your friend!) and the libs will be stampeding to get on board.

Comments

[Beasts of England]

An abbreviated and chilly opening day to the boating season with the highs only in the mid-sixties, but we're underway! Great reviews for the first of this season's candidates for official boat beverage:

'Think Pink'

Three parts pink grapefruit juice
One part light rum
One part vodka

Shake well and pour into a large ice-filled Tervis Tumbler. Repeat often. :)

[Janet]

DoT's 3:32 & sbw's 3:44 are great comments.

Love the Iowahawk stuff too...

[GMax]

So apparently the Floridian is on the St Lucie River just outside of Stuart Florida. I must have cruised right past it when piloting my boat back from Ft Lauderdale to Destin, through the Okeechobee Waterway, but I didnt know. Nothing remarkable from the water I would have said. But then I saw 3 Manatees on the trips and thousand of flying fish, so I really was focused on a whole lot of everything else...

[Beasts of England]

How long did that trip take, GMax? Is the Okeechobee part of the intercoastal waterway?

[GMax]

I transited up the Intercoastal from Ft Lauderdale to Stuart where we took the St Lucie River to the Okeechobee Waterway. 7 different locks, 4 before Lake Okeechobee and 3 afterwards. Day one ended at Ft Myers. Day two was a fuel top off in Clearwater and then the open water trip on the Gulf up to Appalachicola. Only a 1/2 day left from there.

Pretty amazing trip, and a check on my bucket list. I am not anxious to transit Appalachicola to Clearwater again anytime soon, even in a 40 foot cruiser...

[GMax]

Sorry that does not read real clear. 2 1/2 days total.

[Beasts of England]

Sounds great, GMax! Probably cost you more than $100 in gas, though... ;)

[Jeff Dobbs]

Made the trip (as I've told before) from Naples to Panama City Beach in my f-i-l's new (to him) boat back in 2000.

Naples to St. Pete. St. Pete to Steinhatchee. Then Steinhatchee to PCB.

Really one of the best experiences in my life.

[GMax]

Well it had close to a half tank when I bought it. Top off in Stuart, fill up in Ft Myers ( Boca Grande) top off in Clearwater, and fill up in Appalachicola.

Probably about $2K in Diesel. Cheaper than what a trucking company wanted to trailer it here, and a hell of an experience. I was in a Lock with a mama manatee and her young calf. They are smart enough to use the locks to move up and down the waterway just like the boats do.

[Beasts of England]

Steinhatchee? Is that like Tonto Goldstein?

[GMax]

How big was the boat Hit?

[Jeff Dobbs]

It was 28 or 30 feet...

Steinhatchee to Appalachicola never gets you that far offshore. We had good weather. It was all in daylight.

[Beasts of England]

That's a small price to pay for a bucket item, GMax. Interesting about the Manatees - the locks are probably as safe a place for them as any.

[narciso]

afternoon all, great pieces, clarice, I caught the last of the Transformer's offerings, who would think Shia Leboef, would come off as a great thespian, more likely it was the lack of presence of John Turturro,

the Mottaghi report, reminded me of the Borisov incident from the Spike, which true to form, none of the nets, reported on,

[Extraneus]

If Pence screwed up, how's Obama doing?

Rabbi compares Obama to Haman, archenemy of Jewish people...

[flodigarry]

Clarice,

Those baguettes look wonderful!

[narciso]

so if i'm reading the proprietor of Angie's List, they don't stint in offending believing Christians,
would they do the same to Moslems, rhetorical

[GMax]

The lock personnel were VERY protective of the manatee. They were telling us to delay for a minute or two to allow the manatee a headstart. Not really necessary, as a minute opening of the lock was exploited by the manatee, they bolted.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Ok, Jane wanted a new thread. It's been 24 hours since TM's post.

All I had was what I did last night. So now everyone has to share as well...

[narciso]

well she's in top form:

http://therightscoop.com/he-better-watch-out-hillary-defender-to-potential-competitor-martin-omalley/

[Jim Eagle]

Its actually the Floridian Golf Club and its on the St. Lucie River to your port side. Surprised you didn't see it. Its just north of the Palm Gove Yacht and Golf Club across from Stuart as you pass under the US 1 causeway.

Its Butch Harmon's main teaching facility. He lives there and I spent 3 days there with his staff a few years back. Great course. Man sized and difficult from the tips but fair from the handicap tees.

[Jim Eagle]

...Palm Grove.....

[flodigarry]

Beasts,

I had pink grapefruit margaritas last night which were fantastic.

Not sure I'd mix with boating as my tequila tolerance is de minimis.

;-)

[GMax]

Hugging the Fla Coast from Clearwater was not really an option for my boat. The water along the coast northward is quite shallow at low tide, its much longer, and the number of marinas that have diesel fuel is small.

We had a margin for error in the tanks on the direct shot, but that meant six hours of open ocean with nothing but water in sight in all directions. Felt like I was in a remake of Water World.

[narciso]

well, that's something interesting,

http://defence-blog.com/?p=4448

[GMax]

4 White guys on the court for the Zags right now. I dont remember the last time I saw that in an Elite Eight game. And they are but three point s down to Dook

[Marlene on Kindle]

GMax,we took a boat tour in Charlotte Harbor while in Florida and couldn't believe how shallow it is.The manatees are as ugly as our moose,but the dolphins are delightful.Fun fact:the Calusa Indians killed Ponce Dr Leon.

[Marlene on Kindle]

Geez...De Leon.

[GMax]

Marlene

We thought about going south and through the Keys to the West Coast, but it turns out you must transit almost 50 miles off the coast in certain areas west of the keys to be certain of drafting in 4 feet or more of water.

I was not looking for a longer trip and more time where I could see nothing but water. And it was a recurring nightmare of running aground in the middle of absolutely nowhere...

[henry]

GMax, do you look like Jonas Grumby? Do any of your crew look like Ginger or MaryAnne? Inquiring minds.

[GMax]

Jonas who?

No on the crew, but my wife when she crews for me, looks like MaryAnne but with blonde hair instead of red. I am a very lucky man...

[GMax]

ginger I meant. Sheesh

[henry]

Jonas Grumby, aka "Skipper."

No that I can navigate to anything beyond an unfortunate canoe accident.

[GMax]

No I am not the skipper. I would say the professor since he always had the hots for ginger...

[henry]

Physicists ain't dumb, they understand fundamental forces and fibonaccis.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

henry....

[GMax]

I am no physicist. I just still have the hots for my wife, after all these years...

[narciso]

well after in search of Klingsor, about Heisenberg
in part, and Grannec's novel about Godel, I see that,

[jimmyk]

Trying to catch up, but this mystified me:

Imagine the lives of everyone you love being in the hands of a man who thought it made sense to participate in a photo op in which he'd enter a small store and ask, as cameras rolled, "Can I get me a hunting license here?"

What's this referring to?

[sbw]

Kerry tried that.

[narciso]

I think that was the Bloomberg 'ant farm' sting,

[jimmyk]

So this government employee, getting paid by our tax dollars, tweeted thusly:

Sounds rather threatening from a government employee, no? Apparently she then (a) removed from her Twitter bio the fact that she works for the Department of Labor; and (b) deleted the tweet. Too late. We'll see what happens.

[Allison]

300+ comments and no one told you that this idea is already copyrighted by Neal Stephenson?

It's his world, we're just living in it.

He wrote a book called the Diamond Age. His version of Siri is the teacher leading instruction through an electronic book, and that book is subversive. Used to solve the problem of the parentless. None of these are spoilers beyond the first couple chapters...

http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Age-Illustrated-Primer-Spectra/dp/0553380966/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427684667&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Diamond+Age

a terrific little read, like most of his work.

[narciso]

well it was referenced here, besides take it up with the Times,