By this time next fall, it may be hollering back. And dot-coms are out there even as you read this, testing, tracking and teaching their bots to babble in language we can understand. And respond to.
Experts describe it as the human-computer interface.
So it won't be a real leap to start yacking with your hard drive like it was your best friend. Your male best friend. For if the Internet age will bring us tech with personality, it won't do much to dispel our social stereotypes about gender. And if a couple of Stanford researchers have it right, most of the dulcet tones coming out of that high-tech box will be distinctly, determinedly and purposefully male. Dr. Byron Reeves and Dr. Clifford Nass have devoted nearly a decade to studying how people interact with technology.