12 CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // JULY 2019
IT’S 6:30 A.M., and I can hear birds chirping.
Bluebirds, maybe? A family of yellow war-
blers? I turn in bed toward the crescendo of
calls, and a beam of light hits my eyelids. Ah,
the sun feels nice, I think, but why are these birds
getting louder? I pull the edges of my pillow
around my ears as if feather-downs have ever
been eective noise-cancelling headphones.
Eventually, I squint and look around. In a
room that’s otherwise dark, a globe of light
sits on my nightstand, caw-cawing.
I recently moved to a railroad-style apart-
ment in Optimist Park. It has slate gray cin-
der block walls and exposed air ducts, so I
feel pretty cool, OK? But with the layout—
only the living room end of the linear at has
windows—my bedroom is a cave.
I hate to wake up without natural light, so
to avoid snoozing through my alarm for a full
hour, I installed an alarm clock that mimics
the sun and chirps instead of clangs or beeps.
But in my sleepy stupor, I forget. The illusion
of waking in a fairy forest—albeit one with
really loud birds—gone, I get out of bed.
“Alexa!” I holler. “What’s today?” Followed
by, “What’s the weather like?”
“This day is Wednesday, May 15, 2019 ...
In Charlotte, it is 54 degrees. Today, you can
look for sun with a high of 72 degrees and a
low of 45 degrees.”
My iPhone vibrates and updates me on
the light rail schedule—if I want to get to
my oce by 8 a.m., when do I need to leave
home? I ask Siri, “What’s on my schedule?”
She pulls up my calendar: meeting at Not Just
Coee at 10 a.m., lunch at Common Market
at noon, Survivor at 8 p.m. (Yes, that show is
still running.)
I go through my entire morning routinewithout touching a screen. These devices
help me live smarter, more eciently.
Atrium Health recently developed a new
skill for Alexa. It enables patients to locate
the nearest urgent care center and emer-
gency room, check ER wait times, and reserve
a spot in line. It doesn’t allow users to call 911,
because an operator needs call-back capabil-
ity, but as technology giants like Amazon and
Google develop new products, this doesn’t
seem like a distant addition.
It also makes sense why we should keep
some pieces of the medical system—and
life in general—in the hands of humans,
untouched by the robotic voices of Alexa
or Siri. A robot can’t replace a doctor. Alexa
can’t replicate the unwavering calm of a 911
call operator.
Many of the more than 300 doctors on
our annual Top Doctors list (page 66) use
innovative tools and technologies to treat
their patients (page 62), but technology can’t
compare with a physician’s service. Alexa can
answer a request, but she can’t reach out and
ask, “How are you feeling?” Intuition, com-
passion, and intelligence are still the most
valuable tools in a doctor’s briefcase.
I have one more smart device in my apart-
ment: a SimpliSafe security camera with a
motion sensor. It monitors the windows in
my living room, so if a punk throws a rock
through the glass again, I’ll have it on video.
But the camera, well, isn’t always so smart.
My phone vibrates once I sit down at my
desk that May morning with an alert that
the camera sensed motion. Odd, as I’m not
home. I open the application and see the
orange-and-black-speckled furry butt of Zuri,
my two-year-old, sun-loving cat. LOGAN CYRUSA robot
can’t replace
a doctor.
Alexa can’t
replicate the
unwavering
calm of a 911
call operator.
FROM THE EDITORDOCTOR ALEXA
Emma Way
[email protected]The smart-ass robots in our homes