siri

The title of this post says it all. It’s about Siri. You know who I mean. Siri, the wonderful, intelligent, talky voice on my iphone. She’s supposed to keep me out of trouble, provide relevant information when I need it, and get me where I want to go without incident.

She’s fairly good at the first two things. I’m not a trouble-maker so that’s easy for her and she’s pretty good at digging up statistics and facts when I ask her to.

She’s not so good at getting me where I want to go.

Maybe it’s because I live in the north woods and she hasn’t been there much? Anyway, after watching other people use her to successfully navigate their trips without road maps, I decided to give her a try.

I was cautious. I didn’t want to get lost so, just in case she didn’t know the way, I asked her to get me home. It was a trip I know well, one I travel more times than I probably should. You know, the road between Walmart and home.

It was a test and she failed it. She told me to turn left onto a rough forest road that I’d never used because, according to her, it was a shortcut. I decided that perhaps she knew more about my neck of the woods than I did, so I made the turn.

A bit further, she told me to turn right. If I’d have done so, I’d have ended up in the trackless forest where no road existed. I quickly backed out of that road and have never used it since and don’t ask her to get me home any more.

I do occasionally use her expertise to get me to other places because I really do like a bit of help finding my way around and she’s as good as I am in unfamiliar territory.

But I make sure I have a road map handy. Just in case.