Walk into any modern office today and the silence is deafening.  There was a time when the term ‘busy office’ was the norm with rooms filled with enthusiastic telephone chatter and banter between staff.  Now, it’s gone.  Today everyone is working online, a telephone conversation is a rarity, the only sound is a constant, gentle, keyboard clatter and the occasional sigh or groan when the ‘spinning thing’ reappears or something crashes.  

So, I was intrigued with our story about Artificial Intelligence (AI as us techies call it!).  Apparently, the new generation of computer wizardry consigns the keyboard to the recycle bin in favour of voice recognition commands.  Wonderful!  Can you imagine what music that is to the ears of an ageing writer who spends most of his working hours coaxing his arthritic fingers into navigating the qwerty maze?  I was delighted.    

But then it struck me. How can we sit around all day talking to our computers?  It’ll be like the good old days with everyone whispering, then speaking, then shouting in a one-sided crescendo as the noise level inexorably rises to a deafening racket.  The AI processors, meanwhile, will be busting their silicon chips trying to make out the difference between Joe in accounts and Linda in sales while the operators despair as operations fly before their eyes at a million gigabytes a second instigated by someone nearby who just happens to have a more computer friendly tone.  Hilarious chaos.  

There is an alternative of course.  Offices could be redesigned to have everyone siting in soundproof, hermetically-sealed compartments with everyone emerging once every two hours for Communal Social Reintegration (CSR) in which they shout at a coffee machine and try to work out who’s been given what to drink while catching up on the latest developments on Love Island.    

Or maybe I am becoming cynical.  ‘Becoming?’ I hear you shout.  Actually, I really like technology; at least I like what it can do.  But computers are unusual in the commercial world in that advances are frequently made without any thought for their future applications that their developers hope will emerge, given time. I suspect, however, that this particular advancement has a few teething troubles to negotiate before it enters the main stream.