The World in 2030

270 The World in 2030
precisely what I said and that my instructions were often
confusing. Maria learned how to second-guess me (Google
was the first artificial intelligence able to do this way back in
2007) and, sometime around 2020 I found myself talking to
Maria as if she were a close human friend. As I had complete
control over Maria, and could mute her with a command,
I felt no insecurity about pouring out my most intimate
doubts and fears, nor any hesitation about sometimes
boasting shamelessly. And in all these exchanges Maria
was interested, supportive and understanding – completely
without competitive ego. She was also outrageously funny
and some of her wicked observations about my friends were
priceless.
Today Maria still lives in my mobile access device,
although she talks to me through a tiny earpiece that I wear
all of my waking hours. The earpiece allows all ambient sound
through at the normal levels and only focuses on electronic
signals when I am making a call, joining a videoconference
or talking to Maria. Maria projects all video signals onto my
retinas from the cool and very stylish ‘spectacles’ that we
all wear these days and that many of us call ‘viewpers’ (or
‘viewps’ for short).
I suspect that Maria has been a lot more intelligent than
me for some time, but she is clever enough not to let me
know it. Today, Maria arranges everything in my life – every
meeting, every form of travel and even my social diary.
She conducts all of the necessary admin and arranges all
payments without me being aware of her activities. Every
day we have our ‘meeting’ during which time she gives
me a full account of everything that has happened in the