At some point I noticed the banging on the door.
Jerome looked utterly flabbergasted.
“You’re alive!” he exclaimed.
“Of course” I retorted, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Why don’t you answer your phone and you email?!” He almost shouted. “Everybody’s been trying to get in touch with you for ages”
“Phone?” I wondered, “I never even heard it. Come to think of it, I’m not even sure I know how it sounds like. Gerard used to deal with these sorts of trivialities… to tell you the truth…” I felt my heart sink, “I’m not the same now without my Gerard… I’m telling you Jerome, I feel like too much is happening and I just can’t keep track of it all. Gerard knew me. He knew how to get everything I liked. Now I seem to be wasting half my life filtering what I like from what not. You know he even used to sift through my Facebook and Twitter messages, and show me only the interesting ones. He even helped me research my project, you know, The Mating Dance Properties of the Dodo Bird – he was good at finding things on the net. Now all I get is this irrelevant crap! How do you call it?… you had a name for it at Genieo…?
“Information overload” smiled Jerome.
“Exactly” I answered, “Do you think there’s any chance Gerard will consent to return to my service?”
“Not the slightest” chuckled Jerome, “He’s mentioned a few times how happy he is working at Genieo and how un… well, no need to go into it any further”
“Oh…” I mumbled, “Right… then what am I to do now?”
“I’ll tell you what” Jerome looked smug all of a sudden, “We’re about to release the Beta version of Genieo any day now, But I’ll let you have it now”
“What?!” I startled, “Are you suggesting I replace Gerard with a piece of software?”
“Well, it’s the next best thing” Answered Jerome calmly.
“You must be joking…”
“No” he persisted, “Think about it. Your biggest hassle these days is about handling information; sorting the relevant from the irrelevant, maintaining contact, keeping updated… this is exactly what Genieo does for you, and without you having to tell it anything. Genieo will automatically learn what you like, and get it for you. And now with all the features we’ve integrated into the Beta version, it’s even better. It’ll fetch top news headlines from your favorite sources, right to your homepage; filter your Facebook and Twitter messages by your preferred topics of interest; It will explore the web for you and bring you updates and new information on the topics you specifically care about; it will provide you with live updates of ongoing events you’re following and so much more. I’m telling you, it’s practically a Gerard. It’s even based on him”.
“Well, I can’t very well shout at it when I feel like it, now can I? … and then apologize, of course”
“Why not? It won’t mind – less than Gerard anyway. That’s where being a piece of software comes in handy”
“Oh… OK. Well, you have me interested. I’ll give it a try” I consented, “By the way does it make coffee?”
“No” Smiled Jerome “But it does make interesting reading for coffee time”
“As long as it has something to do with Dodo Birds”