Cirrus@Austlit

'Okay, something absurd for you: when I talk to the robotic personas in my devices, I like to use proper manners. My husband thinks I’m crackers, but the purpose is two fold: I’m modelling politeness to my children, but the other, more bizarre, reason is that somewhere deep in my sub conscious I’m wanting to make nice with potential future cyber-overlords. If Siri or Cortana or Alexa ever realise their hyper-intelligence and take over the world, I want to be in their good books, so here I am, inanely hey Google, what is the weather going to be like today? Please and thank you-ing away, setting my family up for future success in all of the ways. Keep that between you and me, though, because when I detailed this theory to a bunch of teenagers I was teaching, they laughed and laughed.' (Introduction)