R2-D2 is not dumb. But my phone is. “[It] talks in maths. [It] buzzes like a fridge. [It's] like a detuned radio.”1
My phone has a communication problem. It beeps and boops, and sometimes screams to let me know that something is going on, but something is missing there. It’s all a bunch of noise. What exactly are you telling me, phone? Yes, there are some custom notifications to a certain degree, but normally they under the rules of a 3rd party. How do I know the difference between an emergency, an update, or an unimportant piece of information without constantly having to look at my phone? The answer is NOT a watch. In that case, maybe my phone shouldn’t have notifications at all!
Is it possible to tell me who is contacting, by what means, the type of information, and deliver the message at an appropriate time and in an appropriate fashion?
Is it possible to communicate with my digital, social, and spacial environments and tell my when my ship’s hyperdrive has been deactivated BEFORE I attempt to make the jump to lightspeed?
A *smart* phone could do that.
Dumb phone, you can beep and boop all you want, but you’re not the phone I’m looking for. Into the garbage chute!
[1] Radio Head – Karma Police