Sunday 15th July; Sky Net Vs Shazam

In the film The Terminator, Sky Net was defending the world against the uprising of the machines.  This was set in 2029 and seemed far off back in 1984, when it was made.  Now that its 2012 it doesn’t seem such a long way off and even seems like a prospect of reality.  I say this for one reason and one reason only, Shazam.  Not that it’s the first thing ever to be given a mind of its own and therefore likely to play its own part in the rise of the machines. This application has been designed with but one purpose, and that is to identify songs.  It doesn't need to be anything else. 

I mention it as I noticed that someone had used this and indicated it as a point of reference on their Facebook page recently.  I’m not going to say I’m annoyed to see this, because, after all Facebook is a place where people can show others what they’re doing at any given time, as identified by the recently integrated time line feature.  What I do object to is the way in which things like this appear to be showing off.  When I first heard about Shazam I thought what a great idea, for if you hear a song and don’t know who it’s by or the name of the track Shazam is perfect for solving that kind of conundrum.  It’s something that would, in my case anyway, eternally bug me if I don’t find out the answer.  I have had times where I have been unable to recall the name of a song and have nearly driven myself insane trying to dig it out from the recesses of my memory. Ok, so I’m not a machine or an application, but much like me this thing has the capacity to think for itself: the only difference between me and Shazam is that I don’t sound arrogant just because ive done something I’ve been programmed to do.  We may both have the ability to identify songs, but I don’t automatically upload my abilities onto a social network every time I do it.  I am guessing that’s how the application works: like so many other applications it tells us ‘I just viewed/uploaded, etc, and that’s really clever of it, but why does it have to sound as if its showing off about it: I know a song when I hear it, aren’t I the clever one, with all my programming and technology! I can only compare that to me saying to someone in the street ‘I’ve just been into HMV and heard a song by Lady Gaga and know what it is, aren’t I the clever one’, not that I would say that, even if I could identify one of her songs, Poker Face not included.