People on the phone

@littlek,

Agreed. Hate it.

0 Replies

What bugs me are people who seem to be "connected" to their cell phones. I was in a restaurant last night. There was a large group of people near us, obviously having a holiday party. It was noisy, so I could not hear what people were saying, but I could see that many of the people were using their phones. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the lights from their phones.

Actually, it has been my practice not to give out my cell phone number to anyone but my husband, son and brother. Over the years, situations have come up where I had to give out the number to a few others, but that is a rarity.

My attitude is that whatever people have to say to me, it can wait until I get home, and listen to my answering machine.

0 Replies

@msolga,

MsOlga wrote:

Yes. Or they have some sort of fixation on their cell phone?

Maybe it's not a fixation. According to a recent article on Dilbert.com, who you think of as "people with a fixation on their cell phone" are actually cyborgs, and what you think of as "cell phones" are actually their exobrains. From this perspective, these so-called "people" wouldn't have a fixation on their so-called "cell phone", just as the rest of your body doesn't have a fixation on your left leg. Legs or exobrains, they're just regular body parts.

On the Dilbert Blog, they wrote:

Technically, you're already a cyborg. If you keep your cell phone with you most of the time, especially if the earpiece is in place, I think we can call that arrangement an exobrain. Don't protest that your cellphone isn't part of your body just because you can leave it in your other pants. If a cyborg can remove its digital eye and leave it on a shelf as a surveillance device, and I think we all agree that it can, then your cellphone qualifies as part of your body. In fact, one of the benefits of being a cyborg is that you can remove and upgrade parts easily. So don't give me that "It's not attached to me" argument. You're already a cyborg. Deal with it.

Your regular brain uses your exobrain to outsource part of its memory, and perform other functions, such as GPS navigation, or searching the Internet. If you're anything like me, your exobrain is with you 24-hours a day. It's my only telephone device, and I even sleep next to it because it's my alarm clock.

Full article

So the real question, MsOlga, is: who do you think you are? Who are you to begrudge cyborgs their bodily integrity? You are the one being rude and disturbing here!

2 Replies

@Phoenix32890,

Phoenix wrote:

I have call waiting on both cell and landlines. If someone calls me while I am on another call, I will tell the 2nd caller that I will get back to him as soon as I am free.

And how is that better than the old days, when caller #2 would get a busy signal and try again later? Or the not-quite-as-old days, when caller #2 would get your answering machine, leave a callback number, and you would return the call as soon as you could? I don't get it: Isn't the idea of technical progress to have machines do this kind of work?

3 Replies

@Thomas,

hee hee....cyborgs....snort.

That was really refreshing Thomas.

I work with a lot of people who are constantly wired up, blue toothed, iphoned etc.
On another thread, re sex texting, I was surprised and pleased to hear a few people say they don't even text at all.

There's hope yet.

0 Replies

@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

MsOlga wrote:
Yes. Or they have some sort of fixation on their cell phone?

Maybe it's not a fixation. According to a recent article on Dilbert.com, who you think of as "people with a fixation on their cell phone" are actually cyborgs, and what you think of as "cell phones" are actually their exobrains. From this perspective, these so-called "people" wouldn't have a fixation on their so-called "cell phone", just as the rest of your body doesn't have a fixation on your left leg. Legs or exobrains, they're just regular body parts.

On the Dilbert Blog, they wrote:
Technically, you're already a cyborg. If you keep your cell phone with you most of the time, especially if the earpiece is in place, I think we can call that arrangement an exobrain. Don't protest that your cellphone isn't part of your body just because you can leave it in your other pants. If a cyborg can remove its digital eye and leave it on a shelf as a surveillance device, and I think we all agree that it can, then your cellphone qualifies as part of your body. In fact, one of the benefits of being a cyborg is that you can remove and upgrade parts easily. So don't give me that "It's not attached to me" argument. You're already a cyborg. Deal with it.

Your regular brain uses your exobrain to outsource part of its memory, and perform other functions, such as GPS navigation, or searching the Internet. If you're anything like me, your exobrain is with you 24-hours a day. It's my only telephone device, and I even sleep next to it because it's my alarm clock.

Full article

So the real question, MsOlga, is: who do you think you are? Who are you to begrudge cyborgs their bodily integrity? You are the one being rude and disturbing here!

This is correct. My question is: what's the problem?

I intend to cyberize myself as soon as possible. Later generations will not understand our reluctance to do so.

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Cycloptichorn wrote:

I intend to cyberize myself as soon as possible.

What makes you think you haven't already been cyberized long ago? What makes you think your flesh and bone isn't a simulation on some buggy FPGA?

And I take it that by "later generations", you mean future models, upgrades, or something of that nature.

1 Reply

@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

Cycloptichorn wrote:
I intend to cyberize myself as soon as possible.

What makes you think you haven't already been cyberized long ago? What makes you think your flesh and bone isn't a simulation on some buggy FPGA?

A lack of evidence of it's existence. I'f I've been cybered up, someone did a masterful job of hiding the proof while providing essentially no added benefits to my core system.

Quote:

And I take it that by "later generations", you mean future models, upgrades, or something of that nature.

How uncouth! You are correct, though, that my plan to have kids and then download my personality into their bodies is proceeding apace.

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Seriously? M. is having a little cyborg? That's wonderful! Congratulations to the both of you!

1 Reply

@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

Phoenix wrote:
I have call waiting on both cell and landlines. If someone calls me while I am on another call, I will tell the 2nd caller that I will get back to him as soon as I am free.

And how is that better than the old days, when caller #2 would get a busy signal and try again later? Or the not-quite-as-old days, when caller #2 would get your answering machine, leave a callback number, and you would return the call as soon as you could? I don't get it: Isn't the idea of technical progress to have machines do this kind of work?

Busy signal? As a young person, I might have been waiting for a boy who was calling me for a date. I would have a conniption when I was waiting for his call, and someone in the family was on the phone. (BTW, I am thinking of those times gone by when even answering machines were a thing of the future).

As one who is older, I often need to get in contact with doctor's offices. In many cases, when I call the doctor, I am faced with a robot. I do not want to miss a return call from a real human being because I was yakking with some friend.

0 Replies

@Thomas,

Thomas wrote:

Seriously? M. is having a little cyborg? That's wonderful! Congratulations to the both of you!

No, we're just planning on doing so in the future Twisted Evil

gotta give the software a few years to catch up before we proceed with the next revision, or Cyclo v. 2.0 will gain too much independence and the memory transfer will be more difficult to accomplish.

Back on course for the thread - as an information junkie, I really would get a permanent link to the internet implanted if I could. The Iphone and other clones represent a ghetto version of this, but I understand why people have them completely: it's a force multiplier.

Once we have better integration between everyday objects and internet connectivity, the force multiplier will increase even more so. It's an awesome thing to get to watch.

Cycloptichorn

0 Replies

i'm starting to believe the whole cyborg thing.

i mean, how else to explain it when you see one holding their phone with a bare hand walking down the street
when the wind chill factor is in the single digits...

1 Reply

@Thomas,

Also in the old days, if the line was busy and the call was a serious emergency, caller could get the operator to interrupt the original call at that number. (I don't think this ever happened with me or my acquaintances).

0 Replies

@Tai Chi,

Well this actually helps me - most people no longer think I am a nutcase as I walk down the street muttering to myself.

0 Replies

@Region Philbis,

Quote:

i mean, how else to explain it when you see one holding their phone with a bare hand walking down the street
when the wind chill factor is in the single digits...

The phone reads the temp and windchill and taking into account how the person is dressed, downloads the joules necessary to keep the hand, the ear and that side of the face warm.

You don't have that feature yet?! You are so last week!

1 Reply

@JTT,

My phone actually helps me convert the calories I have burned into a heat source to help keep my body at a constantly comfortable temperature.

1 Reply

@Seed,

My body does that without the phone.

1 Reply

@roger,

Robot I say, Robot!

0 Replies

I never had Call Waiting on any of my phones (so far) and I get seriously annoyed when my sister's husband calls her every 15 minutes when we're chatting just to say Hi... come on, get a life, we're TALKING here, wimmen talk (as in really important!! lol). Actually, she interrupts me so often to answer her daughter, her son, her husband that I rarely call her anymore. It disrupts the flow of the conversation, esp when you get older and she gets back to you and says "Now, what were we talking about?" and I have to admit that I forgot.

To digress a bit...

What really annoyed me on holidays (Negril, Jamaica, where pot is smoked any and everywhere) was we were in a restaurant, the only ones there, and this table of 8 came and sat right behind us. There were probably 20 tables for them to sit at - why right near us? I think every damn one of them lit up a fat reefer and the smell was just gross. Then, of course, we had to listen to disjointed (ie pointless) and loud conversation for the remainder of our meal. That was a piss off. I think I'd rather they were all on the phone.

1 Reply

@Mame,

Quote:

I think I'd rather they were all on the phone.

The new drug of choice.

1 Reply

People on the phone

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