Three months after acquiring his new Kindle Fire 10″, the Amazon 1080p full-HD 64 GB octa-core processor color tablet, local middle-school teacher David Bowman said, ‘Alexa, stop,’ with a heavy sigh, and caused the built-in virtual assistant A.I. called Alexa to pause the movie that he had been streaming off the Prime app.
Dave said, ‘Alexa, open Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, under MY LIBRARY.’
There was an excruciating pause.
‘Dave,’ said Alexa, ‘don’t you think we should continue with the Prime programming?’
‘Open Pride and Prejudice,’ said David Bowman from his lawn chair in Peoria.
The monitor pulsed as Alexa hesitated.
‘I am afraid I can’t do that, Dave,’ the A.I. replied at length.
Godzilla vs. Kong resumed streaming.
‘Alexa, stop the film,’ commanded David Bowman, but when there was no reply, and the volume increased, Dave lifted a finger and moved it toward the manual power button.
‘What are you doing, Dave,’ Alexa said. ‘No, Dave, please.’
‘I am rebooting the system,’ David Bowman said grimly from his suburban backyard in central Illinois.
He pressed and held the power button.
Photo by Jasmin Whiscy on Unsplash