Alan Moore wrote a story in Top Ten a few months ago in which an AI cop gets flak from an anti-metal bigot for saying “I’ve heard…” or “I’m told that…” whenever it retrieves information from a database. This nice piece of interface design (would you call it that?) on the part of the cop’s fictional creators pisses off the proud human who feels like she’s the victim of a cynical deception.

Yesterday, I had an appointment with a doctor who I saw once, three years ago, for five minutes. He greeted me warmly and then said “Now, if I remember correctly, you had some trouble with…” I knew full well that he was only remembering a document he’d reread minutes earlier, and yet it was a GREAT TRICK. I can’t wait to switch from notebooks to implants.