David Brin published a book early last year titled “Existence” that dealt with the sudden appearance of an alien artifact on the Earth of a generation or so down the line. It was a fairly expansive novel, covering a number of decades, and it included a whole bunch of interesting ideas that altered my thinking on a few topics (or at least led me to think about topics I previously hadn’t).
One topic of great importance in the novel was artificial intelligence. Another of lesser importance was autism. The two concepts actually run into each other in a substantial way in this New York Times piece, which is presumably accurate and autobiographical:
To Siri, With Love
How One Boy With Autism Became B.F.F.’s With Apple’s Siri
In short, a 13-year-old boy with autism (sounds more like Aspergers) finds the Iphones Siri. And the result: the boy’s mother can finally get a moments peace. One of the well-known little features of Aspergers is obsession with various obscure topics (such as, in this case, the weather), and an insatiable need to discuss those obsessions. For people who don’t share them, such discussions would be unceasingly dreary. But for an artificially intelligent telephone with access to the sum total of human knowledge, there is no such thing as boredom or disinterest in *any* topic. And so the obsessed little kid can yammer on at length with Siri.
This is of course good for those who would otherwise get roped in (I can remember the look of exasperation on my parents faces when I started blathering on about Star Trek or dinosaurs). But it would seem to me to probably also be good for the autistic. Sure, it’d be better to have actual *human* two-way interactions, but such are not generally feasible on arcane topics. As the article suggests, the constant back and forth with the machine seems to make the autistic kid better at back and forth with humans. Perhaps Siri is functioning kinda like a flight simulator, but with interpersonal relationships rather than aircraft.
It might be considered sad that this kids best friend is a small, fairly dumb robot. But considering that the alternative would be to have *no* friends…