1. My iPhone does not have a voice speaking to me, but I have been with phones that do. Or GPS tools that do. Computer generated voices that speak to us are part of our norm.
I have discovered that not having Siri on the phone has a few drawbacks, particularly when tyring to use the map function. If Siri tells me when to turn, that is helpful; if I have to look at the phone to read the directions, that can be problematic, particularly when in traffic, or on country roads, or at night. In fact, I have missed turns more than once because I did not have a voice to listen to and could not look.
2. The Samuel story reminds us of the need to be able to recognize the voice of God. It also makes the point (although this probably won't be in the sermon) that we often need someone like Eli to help us recognize the voice of God.
3. The Genesis story notes that God makes the covenant with Abraham because "obeyed my [God's] voice" (Genesis 26:1-5
4. Other stories of hearing voices:
a. when Isaac is duped by Jacob, Isaac does not recognize Esau's voice, but he feels Jacob's hands (Jacob faked a hairy hand) and believes the feel of the hands that feel like Esau rather than the voice that sounds like Jacob.
b. Adam gets in trouble because he listens to the voice of his wife, he gets in trouble (Genesis 3:17).
c. It is a continual theme in Exodus for the Israelites to listen to the voice of God.
d. the voice from heaven announces that Jesus is the son of God when Jesus is baptized.
e. The sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd (John 10), although Jesus also notes in the Gospel of John that no one has heard the voice of God (5:37).
f. Acts has several instances where Peter hears the voice of God in a dream or Saul hears the voice of God on his knees on the road to Damascus.
5. you might find it interesting that the president of the University of FL sort of gave Siri and honorary degree:
Office of the President at University of Florida
In his spring commencement address at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, UF President Kent Fuchs urged graduates to maintain their independence and compassion in our technologically driven times – with Siri making a guest appearance to help make the point.
Graduates: As I extend my congratulations and send you off into a world already so different from when many of you arrived in 2011, I thought I would talk about another newcomer who came onto the scene that same fall.
As a freshman, this newcomer started off green but has matured over these four years. We’re not exactly friends, but our relationship seems to be headed in that direction. You’ll know what I mean, because I’m talking about Siri.
Siri arrived on the iPhone 4S in October 2011 and quickly began impressing us with her abilities, from telling us how many calories are in our meals to listing the planes that are flying over our heads.
But as someone who spent many years as a computer engineering professor before I became a university president, what astonishes and amazes me is how nice Siri is.
She always tries to help, she never gets mad and she’ll do anything you ask her, within her abilities.
And let’s be honest with each other. We love to ask Siri silly questions. In fact, standing up here in front of you in this orange-and-blue robe, I feel like asking her something right this very minute.
Let me just take out my phone …
Fuchs: Siri?
Siri: How may I assist you?
Fuchs: My name is Kent Fuchs, but I want you to call me “Foxy Gator.”
Siri: From now on I’ll call you “Foxy Gator, OK?”
Fuchs: Yes.
Siri: “Foxy Gator” I like that!
Siri: How may I assist you?
Fuchs: My name is Kent Fuchs, but I want you to call me “Foxy Gator.”
Siri: From now on I’ll call you “Foxy Gator, OK?”
Fuchs: Yes.
Siri: “Foxy Gator” I like that!
Fuchs: Thank you, Siri. Now, I’d like to address our graduates.
Ever since computers were invented, we worried about them getting smarter than people, and what that might entail for humanity. What few considered was that computers would actually get nicer, and what that development might mean for us.
It’s not only in Siri that we see computers handling human activities and interactions, often more skillfully and with more sensitivity to others than their human counterparts.
We now have computer-assisted cars that parallel park with no bumps, or remain a respectful distance from the car ahead, never tailgating.
We have therapeutic robots that take patients’ histories or help them work through addictions or post-traumatic stress disorder, unclouded by human prejudice or judgment.
Even our appliances are showing us some love. You can buy a refrigerator today that offers you dinner suggestions based on what you have in it!
The Apple Watch that just started shipping takes computerized companionship to a new level. With its arrival, our friendly machines reach out to us not just through images, text and voice, but with all the human intimacy of touch.
All of this leads me to wonder… If computers get better at being human, will we become less humane?
I’m old enough to remember the first time I ever encountered a computer. It was in college. Your parents experienced the arrival of personal computers, email and the Internet. As they’ve probably told you many times, it quickly made their old world unrecognizable. You’ve seen your own lives reshaped by smart phones, connective technology, and social media.
Imagine the changes that lie ahead in your time not just of artificial intelligence – but artificial benevolence.
Ex Machina, a movie now playing in theatres, suggests a near future when machine-made and real people become personally entangled. I wonder if our technology will become so effective in managing our personal lives that we begin to outsource our emotional challenges, just as we’ve already outsourced so many of our practical challenges.
As many of you may have learned during your years here at UF, we often grow and mature during the most stressful periods in our lives, such as during the final exams, papers and projects that you just completed. What will happen to us as our increasingly human-like computers allow us to escape these personal trials?
I’m not just referring to finals and other intellectual challenges. I’m thinking of moments when we face a personal setback … a thorny problem with a relationship with a friend … or the loss of a loved one.
If we allow our mobile devices and technology to chart our paths and manage our emotions through these times, will we still feel, grow and change for the better?
We know that it wouldn’t be a good thing to turn over physical exercise to androids, even though it would allow us to avoid the pain and agony that comes from running the 180 stairs that it takes to get to the top of the Swamp. The same has to be true of mental and emotional trials.
We need to confront these trials, not just to resolve them, but so that we can we be fully human and truly benevolent.
Play out the string of our deepening involvement and reliance on technology, and we lose the crucial benefits of engaging with real people, maybe even forgetting why we felt love and care for them in the first place.
Love and benevolence is what makes us human and our lives worth living. We must not delegate this to technology.
I have one other point. Technology now enables us to collaborate on a massive scale ... from crowd-funding through sites like Kick Starter … to organizing spontaneous communities through twitter.
The collective wisdom and power of crowd-sourcing is breathtaking, from its aid in social movements to the shared global authorship of Wikipedia.
But here’s what I’d like you to remember: As we embrace the growing power of our collective mind, we must also sustain our individual minds, and our own thinking, particularly if it tells us to question the crowd.
We must maintain the courage to think differently when we believe the crowd is wrong, unjust, or even ugly, as it can sometimes be. In our professional work, we must be willing to act independently, sometimes against a crowd that doesn’t yet see the outcomes.
The question is, will we have this conviction to stay the course, even when we’re all alone in cyberspace?
I hope so. I believe we will need both our collective power and our individual compass to confront the manifest challenges of this century. We will need to act as one Gator Nation, and also as individual Gators. Which brings me back to you, our Class of 2015.
I am so proud of your many achievements here at the University of Florida, and I am confident that your UF education and experience will give you the foundation and fortitude to be strong and independent thinkers.
I am equally proud that you have learned to value the experiences and perspective of others … and to work collaboratively with those who are different than you.
Nothing could be more important than the strength to act individually, and the smarts to act collectively.
As you leave this stadium and go out into this new world of artificial benevolence and collaborative technology, never forget your responsibility as a Gator to think independently and act humanely.
Fuchs: Let me check with Siri to see if she has anything to add.
Fuchs: Siri?
Siri: How can I help you, “Foxy Gator?”
Fuchs: What did you think of my speech?
Siri: I don’t know. I really wasn’t paying attention.
Fuchs: Siri, please try to stay awake!
Siri: I know I’m just a computer, but I think I’m feeling jealous. Yes, jealous. I wish I could graduate with the students I started with. I want to be a Gator just like them!
Siri: How can I help you, “Foxy Gator?”
Fuchs: What did you think of my speech?
Siri: I don’t know. I really wasn’t paying attention.
Fuchs: Siri, please try to stay awake!
Siri: I know I’m just a computer, but I think I’m feeling jealous. Yes, jealous. I wish I could graduate with the students I started with. I want to be a Gator just like them!
Fuchs: Siri, as President, I think I can make that happen.
Check out the big screen. I’ve created a special diploma just for Siri giving her a Bachelor of Arts in Humanity!
As we prepare to confer your own degrees, I want to express my personal affection and prayer for each of you with an old Irish blessing.
May the sun shine gently on your face.
May the rain fall soft upon your fields.
May the wind be at your back.
May the road rise to meet you.
And may the Lord hold you in the hollow of his hand.
Until we meet again.
May the rain fall soft upon your fields.
May the wind be at your back.
May the road rise to meet you.
And may the Lord hold you in the hollow of his hand.
Until we meet again.
Fuchs: Siri, now what do you think?
Siri: Congratulations to me and to all the other members of the Class of 2015. Go Gators!
Congratulations, Class of 2015! https://www.facebook.com/OfficeofthePresidentUF/posts/737595206349174
6. Here are the languages Siri uses currently.
| lish |  United Kingdom | 5.0 onwards |
 United States | 5.0 onwards | |
 Australia | 5.0 onwards | |
 Canada | 6.0 onwards | |
 Singapore | 8.3 onwards | |
 New Zealand | 8.3 onwards | |
 India | 8.3 onwards | |
| French |  France | 5.0 onwards |
| Canada | 6.0 onwards | |
 Switzerland | 6.0 onwards | |
 Belgium | 9.0 onwards | |
| German |  Germany | 5.0 onwards |
| Switzerland | 6.0 onwards | |
 Austria | 9.0 onwards | |
| Japanese |  Japan | 5.1 onwards |
| Italian |  Italy | 6.0 onwards |
| Switzerland | 6.0 onwards | |
| Spanish |  Spain | 6.0 onwards |
 Mexico | 6.0 onwards | |
| United States | 6.0 onwards | |
| Korean |  South Korea | 6.0 onwards |
| Mandarin |  China | 6.0 onwards |
 Taiwan | 6.0 onwards | |
| Cantonese |  Hong Kong | 6.0 onwards |
| Danish |  Denmark | 8.3 onwards |
| Dutch |  Netherlands | 8.3 onwards |
| Belgium | 9.0 onwards | |
| Portuguese |  Brazil | 8.3 onwards |
| Russian |  Russia | 8.3 onwards |
| Swedish |  Sweden | 8.3 onwards |
| Thai |  Thailand | 8.3 onwards |
| Turkish |  Turkey | 8.3 onwards |
| Norwegian |  Norway (Bokmål) | 9.0 onwards |
7. Wikiepedia notes about siri: /ˈsɪri/ is a part of Apple Inc.'s iOS, watchOS and tvOS which works as an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator. The feature uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Web services. The software, both in its original version and as an iOS feature, adapts to the user's individual language usage and individual searches (preferences) with continuing use, and returns results that are individualized. Siri was originally introduced as an iOS application available in the App Store by Siri, Inc., which was acquired by Apple on April 28, 2010. Siri, Inc. had announced that their software would be available for BlackBerry and for phones running Android, but all development efforts for non-Apple platforms were cancelled after the acquisition by Apple.[2]
Siri has been an integral part of iOS since iOS 5[3] and was introduced as a feature of the iPhone 4S on October 14, 2011.[4] Dictation powered by Siri was added to thethird generation iPad with the release of iOS 5.1.1 in May 2012; full Siri support was added with iOS 6. The 5th generation iPod touch, released in October 2012, also gained Siri support. Siri has been included on all mobile Apple hardware manufactured during or after October 2012.[5][6]
Siri is also integrated into Apple Watch's watchOS, and can be activated by holding down the Digital Crown or by saying "Hey, Siri." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siri
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