Re: Metrical Stress, Feet, Syllables, Genders, Email Servers etc.
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, February 10, 2004, 20:46 |
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On Tue, Feb 10, 2004 at 12:11:20PM -0800, Philippe Caquant wrote:
> You can say from a computer that 'he told
> you something', but hardly from a dictaphone or
> automatic phone answerer, although they deliver you
> vocal messages.
Sorry, but I have disagree. I don't think of computers as being at
all personlike. Sure, it can tell me something, but so can a
scrolling news ticker on the TV, or my calculator (the answer to a math
problem), or my pager, or a note left on my desk, or many other things -
all of which are quite definitely things.
As for names, my computers in my office at work are named strange, charm,
and top (the last one being my laptop, of course). I used to have an up
as well, but it became outdated and was never replaced.
The ones at home are named after Disney characters: Aladdin, Jasmine,
Mulan, Gaston, and Belle.
We're a long way from anything like HAL. At least several decades behind
the timeline presented in that movie.
-Mark
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