(Karra explains how her computer works and that being voice-activated, it isn’t as easy as it sounds to operate. It is pretty smart though as it reported to her my disrespecting of its functions. The trick is realizing its AI is closer to that of a professor at some university.) 

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Karra: hello.

Russ: hi Karra.

Karra: greetings.

Russ: Karra this is Ann, Ann, that's my love of my life.

Karra: greetings Ann, I know it does look strange referring to the host body. Okay, first of all let me answer questions. Do you have any questions?

Ann: not right now.

Karra: okay.

Russ: yeah, working on the computer last night.

Karra: uh-huh.

Russ: very strange setup, I had to work a while to get used to it.

Karra: strange in what way?

Russ: I kept wanting to type my answers in, questions in.

Karra: you don't need to do that.

Russ: I know, that's what strange about it.

Karra: of course, you don't have voice recognition on your computers do you?

Russ: no, so I'm trying to type stuff in and going, "well I can't type stuff in so that won't work."

Karra: it's also a Sirian keyboard.

Russ: yeah I know, that was the other part that threw me off.

Karra: you expect me to have an English keyboard as I barely read English?

Russ: and then the computer's interactive.

Karra: yes.

Russ: so it's working with me on the answers and it's like it's trying to determine what point I'm asking the question from.......

Karra: uh-huh.

Russ: and I'm trying to formulate the question in a way that it will understand.

Karra: it's quite simple.

Russ: well it didn't like the data I gave it, it told me to reformat my question and ask it again.

Karra: you have to be precise and accurate. If you give it too many variables, for example......

Russ: I didn't give it enough variables was the problem.

Karra: well, that's also a problem. If you sit there and say, "computer, I want information on digitalis." It would give you all the information that you ever wanted to know and some that you didn't want to know on digitalis. It will give you its common name, its Latin name, its chemical composition. It will give you the history, the genetics, the biological background, it will be data overload.

Russ: thank you.

Karra: if on the other hand you ask a question, "I would like to know the genus of digitalis and relevant information to its effects on angina." It will tell you the background that you requested and the effects of digitalis on angina. Now if you go the other way and say that, "I'm requesting information on digitalis, I need the genetic background and interaction with heart palpitations and angina in connection with the chemicals that are derivatives used in third dimensional earth medicine on controlling heart problems."

Russ: you're going to have fun typing that up.

Ann: yeah.

(laughter breaks out)

Karra: I apologize to our scribe. 

Ann: you may have fun editing it. 

Karra: but by asking that question, you have given it a very narrow field and conflicting field as well. And the computer will ask you for more information or say it's unable to comply. So that will create a problem that the computer will have in interacting with you. You have to ask specific questions but they have to be worded in a way that is understandable by the computer. 

Russ: all right because when I tried to access it to ask it about the relationship between the Internet and the brain.......

Karra: uh-huh.

Russ: it said something about cannot comply, not enough data for answer. So I had to re.....

Karra: well you've given it........in actual fact you gave it the opposite. It could have given you information overload but the computer is, my computer is set up in such a way that you have to ask specific questions. If you asked Tia's computer which is actually the same one as mine, the same mainframe but she has different specifications on her terminal. I have mine focused very narrowly because of medical word searches. For example, let us take glandular fever....."I want information on glandular fever." It will give you all your glands and all the relevant fevers and how they interact and how each fever interacts with each gland and particular illness. Guess what you get? You get about a three hour dissertation, that's a waste of time. So let us say I want information on......I'm trying to think of a good gland that would give a good example but all the answers I can think of would be too long-winded at this time and too hard on the poor little fingers for typing. Okay, let us say that I want.....

Russ: thyroid.

Karra: thyroid, I could give you a dissertation and a half on that if you want, Tia's got a better analogy. Tia says that I ask my computer for information on Bill Clinton from January 1rst, '97 to January 7th, '97. My computer will ask for more detail on what I'm looking for. My computer would ask for specific topics or in actual fact it would say, "unable to comply, too much information or too little information." So you have to focus down on to a narrowed field. Let us say I want information on Bill Clinton from January 1rst, '97 to January 5th, '97 in connections with speeches on foreign policy of Northern Ireland concerning Sinn Fein. It will scan all his speeches of that period from the first to the fifth. It will scan all the references in his speeches of Northern Ireland. It would then scan looking for Sinn Fein and it would give me the one speech that he made concerning it. Tia says that there weren't any speeches made at that time about Sinn Fein. So by keying the word searches and wording them in such a way cuts down on a lot of time. Instead of sitting there and giving a dissertation like you tend to do Russ, it will give the computer something to mull over and it can give you a lot of information. But on the other hand, if you say you want information on Bill Clinton and Sinn Fein, again it could give you too much information.

Russ: or I would override. Well as it turned out, we got along quite famously after that. 

Karra: uh-huh, it's a matter of learning that.

Russ: yeah, I just basically started wording it more toward a specific topic of the brain or the Internet or the two.

Karra: you have to specify exactly what you want.

Russ: I need to take a break on this tape for a second, we have a strange.....

(the tape restarts)

Karra: I'm not really good at answering questions like that. I try to do the best I can. Omal's much better. Okay, any more questions?

Russ: that's good for me. I mean it's basically we're working on your computer I think would be the topic of that particular session there. Anything you would like to add to it?

Karra: patience.

Russ: all right.

Karra: next time you call my computer a stupid computer........

Russ: did I say that?

Karra: uh-huh.

Russ: oh. It's probably just that point just after that first question. Oh I did, didn't I? Yeah, I was a little frustrated.

Karra: yes, my computer tells me everything.

Russ: well I mean it was a good learning experience for me in the fact that it was the first time I've sat down and actually worked with it.

Karra: yes a learning experience hmmm, don't have many of those do we Russ?

Russ: oh once a day, once a day.

Karra: oh, once a day only? Okay.

Russ: bye love.