Chatting up the Bot

Or We Looked Crazy When Cell Phones First Came Out

I remember one time driving home from college and seeing this older man in his car waving his hands and carrying on—and there was no one else in the car. At the time I thought he was talking to himself. Perhaps he was having an argument with himself or maybe he was in the local theater running his lines. Turns out he was on the phone, ranting away into a handsfree device. This was back when it wasn’t illegal to have the cell phone up to your ear, which feels like a lifetime ago. It’s interesting to think back to when technology began the process of human isolation. I’m sure folks have differing opinions on this, but I would offer that it was the launch of the Walkman (a name that would never make it through marketing these days!). With personal music to take through life, the portable cassette player was revolutionary not only in technology but in the shift towards isolation.

Midjourney prompt: a man in his car driving having a conversation with himself looking like a crazy person, do…