Connect The Dots# 9: Halfway

1. A story from today's New York Times envisioning the direction of the "Wintel" platform, a personal computer that will actually be an intelligent personal assistant. The computer, "a nuanced attempt to recreate the finer aspects of a relationship that can develop between an executive and an assistant over the course of many years," will among other things help you judge your attire and diagnose the treatment of "non-acute" symptoms.

2. A story from today's New York Times suggesting that foward-looking baby strollers may not be best for a child's development, since it radically diminishes face-to-face contact between babies and their mothers, fathers and care-givers.

3. A throw-away line from an article I wrote about George Orwell's newspeak in 1983 which, unprompted, migrated (at last count) to over 1300 websites: "The danger from computers is not that they will eventually get as smart as men, but we will meanwhile agree to meet them halfway."

Extra credit: Might one non-acute symptom be the inability to envision an approving smile while trying to decide what to wear?

Disclaimer: I know I could not have known about 1300 websites without meeting Google halfway, so don't bother rubbing it in.  I also should have written "people" instead of "men," but I meant "mankind" (which I hope does not only dig the hole deeper).