Rox Burkey – Blog Place

An Ongoing Opportunity to Fraud!

Technology is my field of study and profession. I have been working for more than 25 years in mapping the right business solutions to the latest and greatest technology software and applications available for optimizing customer and work force experiences. While I don’t know everything when it comes to feeds & speeds my knowledge is deep enough and wide enough to counsel others in the proper use. I’ve been around it long enough to understand the possibilities and smart enough to know what it can’t do.

I’ve worked for years with very large global organizations and influencers who need to stay accountable to their customer, shareholders, and board of directors. Solutions which can pass the scrutiny of security teams, PCI compliance, HIPPA, GDPR and other regulatory requirements various businesses face are critical for me to understand or position. The world is larger and yet the global knowledge is more tightly held than ever, finally I might add. Professionally it’s important to me to place the right solution for the customer to avoid issues downstream. This situation is very much like being on a surgeons operating table.  The one thing NO ONE wants to hear is OOPS!  An OOPS for the wrong technical solution is in the same category.

Technology solutions have been the primary reason businesses have succeeded or failed in the last two decades.  Look how far we have come with the advent of the Internet, dynamic programming methods, cloud computing, cellular functionality, voice enablement using speech recognition, and even big data with extensive analytics leveraging customer preferences. Today we can model DNA changes, impact patient diagnostics to minutes over days, geo-locate everything down to your pets (Yep, my dog is chipped), and leverage big data to determine your next best choice even helping folks promote this or that on social media. In most cases the common response is there’s an App for that, whatever that is.

As a technologist, an award-winning author, a mother, former girl scout, and believing Christian, I like to play fair. Perhaps I have too many personas to be objective. But let’s start at the beginning. Playing fair to me is you work for what you gain, nothing is given for free. I’ll fairly trade my hard-won knowledge for some shekels without cheating. I’m sure you find it the same in your world with the Golden Rule and all that.

On the other side of the spectrum I am an award-winning author, great right? Certainly, I am very proud of our accomplishments, but I don’t have the number one selling critics’ accolade to take advantage of writing full time. The search engines and social media are now the focus of winners versus losers. It’s just ‘like’ the Roman Colosseum spectators handing out a thumbs up versus thumbs down for an author’s hard work. Followers versus deserters. In a world of contrasts the young people get medal for participation, but the Adults are judged on a purely pass or fail model.

Now people have technology and artificial intelligence running to the rescue. My co-author and I are working on The Enigma Beyond, Who Won the A.I War. This story looks at bots, drones, A.I. machine learning, and next generation of corruption possibilities. It’s a fun venue for a technologist. Then along comes this bot promising the world.

I get messages from a bot saying they are Amazon Virtual Assistants, which is where we need to gain ground. I’m intrigued and think about the possibilities, so I start a conversation. I take the idea to my co-author who is skeptical at the easy solution, as am I.


Yes, we write great stories. With 10 books in the series, 8 of them on audible, various awards, hundreds of followers, and great reviews from raving fans we should be satisfied. These days it seems never enough to get to the top of the heap. You see, the search engines and big data algorithms want more and more every day. Is this the promise and hope we need to achieve the big success?

Our award-winning books of The Enigma Series are on Amazon, iTunes, B and N, Smashwords, EBG 24/7, Indie Beacon, Goodreads, and more. But they lack the reviews need to push us to that coveted top position. If you love Techno Thrillers, this series is for you.

This automated, anonymous type of technology seduction is tempting. We can gain reviews and raise our status. The problem is the reality of this choice. Having a machine bend your will to meet what you need is dishonest. It has to come with a price and this Bot doesn’t convey the price. (Reminds me of the old cartoon with the Devil on one shoulder and the Angel on the other.) This is a try and do solution without even knowing the price of entry. I know how Odysseus felt listening to the Songs of the Sirens as his ship sailed in Homer’s book The Odyssey. (Someone, lash me tighter to the mast!) 

That’s where the honesty button in my makeup is triggered. Do I want to have reviews that are machine driven rather than those completed by people who have read or listened to our stories and speak with the voice of familiarity? Do we want good reviews? Of course. But we want defensible, honest reviews by people not fabricated by a machine with an algorithm to describe the best possible outcome. Nor, can I count on this bot o’ mine to help me gain social contacts or further my true raving fans. It may not be as powerful or positive, but at least I can look in the mirror in the morning. Poorer perhaps, but I know I didn’t let technology cheat for me.

The old adage is true, people buy from people.  We don’t buy from bots. Should one use the bot or not? Who would know? Would you? How would Dr. Seuss say it? Would you buy it from a bot? Would you use your bot from a cot? Will using a bot make you a better person or not? If I used a bot I would feel like sot.  Would you use a bot, with a tot, while on a pot? I would not could not use a bot! I will not use them here or there! I will not use a bot ANYWHERE! Thank you for my rant, as for using the bot, I can not.  Thanks to Dr. Seuss.

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    2 replies to "Technology Seduction"

    • Jim H

      I’m always realizing that we’ve manufactured eternity, heaven, immortality. Technology is part of our evolution. It’s not separate from us. It is us.

      The frightening thing. So few control so much.

      • RoxBurkey

        Jim

        Your point is well made. Perhaps we use our Free Will and make sound choices rather than being a part of the herd. Rox

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