MC with and without a beard
On a whim I decided to grow a beard in the last two weeks or so. Along the way it became an experiment in testing my phone’s facial recognition feature. The first four days or so after not shaving, the phone began to struggle. As the stubble started becoming thicker and, in my case, greyer, I could sense that the feature became progressively erratic. If memory serves on the sixth or the seventh day facial recognition just gave up. I think I even heard it cuss under breath but I could be wrong.
That it gave up to me is a clear sign of its at least elementary intelligence. If it were super intelligent, to the extent of the fears of AI taking over the world, then it could have cut through my hirsute face and still unlocked the phone.
I was not entirely certain if the beard threw off facial recognition but am reasonably sure that that had to be the cause. This morning after I shaved and in the process killed three razors, I showed my face to the phone and instantly it unlocked. I think I heard even a low whistle emanate from the phone. It seemed turned on as it were. The lock icon appeared to shatter into pieces.
It may not be such a bad idea to have a relationship with my phone given that it has been a very long time since anyone or anything that has shown such unbridled enthusiasm about my face.
