[Critique Group 2] Leonard's comments re: Martia

[tuchyner5 at aol.com]

This is a fun piece.  



It’s about the ambivalent relationship wehave with electronic, AI, devices. 



There is a greater need for these thingsfor accessibility’s sake. So life is richer with them, 



but sometimes I yearn for a good oldtypewriter. 



The only problem is I couldn’t read what Ityped and certainly couldn’t edit. 



On the other hand, we could get thoseservices from sighted people directly. 



That would cost a lot. 



So keeping our  equipment functioning isn’t costly,frustrating, and bad for  our health?It’s a well written  piece and off hand,I can’t think of anything   to change. 




 



 



 


Hearingvoices



MarciaJ. Wick, The Write Sisters



September2019



WordCount:  321



 



At5:30 a.m., my alarm speaks, “Feed the dog.” My mobile phone then announces, “Thehigh temperature for the day will be in the 80s.” Siri, the lady trapped insidemy smart phone, speed reads my email and internet searches effortlessly. 



 



It’snot that I’m losing my mind, hearing voices when I’m home alone. I depend uponaudible technology to compensate for my progressive loss of vision. As a personwho is blind in the 21st century, I am grateful for audibletechnology. It’s as if I’m never alone. 



Considering the fact that everything yourdevices hear is being saved and stored, you may really not be alone. Bigbrother is watching.



 



Michaellives in my laptop. He speaks through my screen reader. He doesn’t judge mywriting; he reads to me without intonation or emotion. When I dictate textmessages, I have programmed a delightful English gentleman to read them back tome. Somehow, my words seem more clever and whimsical when echoed in his liltingaccent. My smarter-than-me phone, on the other hand, sometimes makes me feelinept. 



Does the name HAL mean anything to you?



 



“I’msorry, you’re daughter isn’t in your contact list,” Siri claims. 



 



“Sheis, too,” I retort. Sometimes, I call Siri the “B” word when she pisses me offlike that.



 



Mytalking book player also reads aloud to me. I can adjust the tone of thenarrator’s voice up or sound so that a man sounds like a woman; I can adjustthe speed so that a woman sounds like a chipmunk. Either way, I can insure thatthey stop reading aloud in 15 or 30 minutes according to the time I set on theaudible sleep button. 



 



Itused to be that only human voices from the television or radio filled the airin my home. Now I rely on talking microwaves and coffee makers, talkingCalculators, thermometers, and clocks.



Voicesvia YouTube, podcasts, webinars, Netflix, mp3 files, eBooks, and conference callsadd to the cacophony.



 



“OK,Google,” I command. Turn it off! Let me remember the beautiful sound of peaceand quiet.



I’ll drink to that.



 
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