this post was submitted on 25 May 2025
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Jesus Christ. I had no idea so many people were buying these things. That's astounding.
If you'd asked me to guess what percentage of households had one, I'd have guessed single digits.
I got several free from both google and amazon. My electric company gave me one too.
What is the absofuckingworstly scariest thing about this is that I've personally read quite a few sci-fi books, like in half of them, like in any universe, such things were usually a Trojan horse by the threat of the week to exterminate the good guys, or at least Palpatine's way of spying, or whatever.
OK, Palpatine's coolest microphone was decorative trees with skin changing colors depending on vibrations, and a very complex system of restoring the sounds from image, if I remember that correctly, in one X-Wing book.
So how the hell does it happen that such things are presented in movies and books and series like a threat, and yet people buy them?
I can believe in people loving touchscreens because touchscreens were unfortunately popularized in Star Trek and even, sigh, Star Wars prequels, and everything sci-fi.
But this is something that was being recommended against in such media for decades.