Ah, the dulcet tones of Dennis DeYoung and his pals from Styx. Who could ever forget the monumentally moronic Mr. Roboto? I doubt that even 20 consecutive gold records could wipe that stain from the memory of rock fans.
Why does this gruesome mental image come to me today? Well, my Twitter account is just about to reach the 200 follower plateau and, when reviewing the legions that have chosen to follow me, I’m struck by the large number of idiots in the mix. Don’t get the wrong impression! I don’t know any of them personally, but but upon closer inspection, it is painfully obvious why they chose to follow me. Was it because they’re friends of friends? Did they read one of my earthshaking posts and decide that they had to get 140 character versions of my every utterance? Could it even be that they saw my Twitter feed on the blog page and absolutely had to have more? No, they’ve got bots (robotic, web-surfing software applications) that have utilized their incredible artificial intelligence (AI) to select me!
Well, in this case, it will become painfully obvious to you that AI has a long way to come. What is happeneing here is that, while searching my profile with their exacting logic, they stumbled upon my name. They see Art and they assume that I’m going to be talking about fashion design, graphic design, immortal impressionists, and superior sculptors. In short, they mistake Art for art.
Much like the boys from Styx who misread the American angst over superior Japanese profits in he 1980’s, these bots have latched onto one word and dragged their owners into a Twitter stream that offers them nothing even close to their target. Instead of art, they get retort and lament instead of gold lame.
It just makes me wonder about the Tweeters out there who are so excited about reaching milestones like 500 and 1000 followers. When Styx sang, “I’m just a man whose circumstance went beyond his control”, could they have seen this coming?
So That's Life?
Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto
04/13/2009Ah, the dulcet tones of Dennis DeYoung and his pals from Styx. Who could ever forget the monumentally moronic Mr. Roboto? I doubt that even 20 consecutive gold records could wipe that stain from the memory of rock fans.
Why does this gruesome mental image come to me today? Well, my Twitter account is just about to reach the 200 follower plateau and, when reviewing the legions that have chosen to follow me, I’m struck by the large number of idiots in the mix. Don’t get the wrong impression! I don’t know any of them personally, but but upon closer inspection, it is painfully obvious why they chose to follow me. Was it because they’re friends of friends? Did they read one of my earthshaking posts and decide that they had to get 140 character versions of my every utterance? Could it even be that they saw my Twitter feed on the blog page and absolutely had to have more? No, they’ve got bots (robotic, web-surfing software applications) that have utilized their incredible artificial intelligence (AI) to select me!
Well, in this case, it will become painfully obvious to you that AI has a long way to come. What is happeneing here is that, while searching my profile with their exacting logic, they stumbled upon my name. They see Art and they assume that I’m going to be talking about fashion design, graphic design, immortal impressionists, and superior sculptors. In short, they mistake Art for art.
Much like the boys from Styx who misread the American angst over superior Japanese profits in he 1980’s, these bots have latched onto one word and dragged their owners into a Twitter stream that offers them nothing even close to their target. Instead of art, they get retort and lament instead of gold lame.
It just makes me wonder about the Tweeters out there who are so excited about reaching milestones like 500 and 1000 followers. When Styx sang, “I’m just a man whose circumstance went beyond his control”, could they have seen this coming?
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