‘Live’ To ‘Love,’ An iPhone Glitch
My beloved and I have both noticed something peculiar about our iPhones. Well, there’s a few things peculiar these days, the automatic updates not being the least of them, but this is something “extra” peculiar. Whenever we type the word “love” into a text it is auto-corrected. Often turned into “live.”
They tell you that auto-correct is a form of artificial intelligence (AI). As such, it is meant to learn your habits, know often-used words, syntax, etc. It is supposed to make typing easier by knowing what you want to say, in general, or at least how you like to say it.
That’s the theory.
In actuality, this is clearly not the case, with the best example being that every time I type the word “love” it is autocorrected to the word “live.” I “love” a lot. I am not shy with the affection nor with expressing it in texts. So it is actually a small wonder that autocorrect hasn’t learned this yet. It would be far more understandable if all my “lives” turned to “loves,” as this would be easily explainable by how much I use “love” over “live.” And yet, every time, without fail, “love” is magically, or tragically, transformed to “live” by my iPhone. The poet in me noticed the irony from the very start, but when I found the same was true for my beloved and some very loving friends, the writer in me finally couldn’t hold it in any longer.
This must be one of those AI-over-rides, some software writer’s decision. Always change “love” to “live.” Perhaps they looked up usage of the two words and decided that in the vast majority of cases people meant “live,” not “love” when typing those four letters. After all, the “I” and “o” are right next to each other. Odds are that the majority of the people the majority of the time meant “i.” But is that true I wonder? Do people really use “love” that much less than “live?”
And what does this say for Apple? Is Apple a company far more focused on life than love? Is it we as Americans…or all English-speaking citizens that are this way? Perhaps. But I can’t help but think there’s a glitch here instead. At least, I hope this is the case. I hope that my beloved and I aren’t the only ones wondering about this glitch. I hope that millions of English-speaking iPhone users wonder why their automated devices don’t assume they wish to “love” instead of simply “live.”
But if this were true, wouldn’t someone at Apple have fixed the problem by now? We all know that “updates” are not held sacred at the place. I get updates on my updates before I’ve allowed the last update to install. So it can’t be that.
Is it some programmer’s nasty trick on the English-speaking populace? He or she was jilted in love and so all they have left is to “live.” And so they wrote the program to make the entire world comply? Maybe I’m a bit extreme (ok crazy) to be taking it this far…but really, “live” instead of “love” every time! That’s just a little extreme as well, wouldn’t you say?
I want to live, sure, but I want to love far more than I simply live. Loving is what makes the living worthwhile. Am I the “odd man out” to be this way? Isn’t this the norm? In my experience, love long outlives life. I have lost many these past few years, their lives have ended, but my love for them lives on. Not according to my iPhone. According to this brilliant device, I “live” them still.
But then I question the opposite extreme. What if living were loving? What if love was so automatic that simply to say we’re alive would be to say we’re a-love? What if you couldn’t live without loving. Then implying the one would be automatically implying the other. When the Apple software developer designed this “flaw” in the device, was he/she a cynical and bitter loser of love or was he/she actually a brilliant believer that all life is love? To live is to love. They are synonymous. Is the glass half empty or half full?
And then I wonder, but haven’t they noticed? Why am I the only one talking about this? Don’t others want more “love” in their “lives?” If even only in autocorrect?
I hope so. I hope I’m starting a revolution and not preaching to a room full of empty faces with dumbfounded expressions. Don’t you want more love in your life?
I don’t mean just romantic love either. I mean love of family, friends, pets, plants, anything. Love is more than a covetous wanting, love is an unconditional “seeing.” It is a respect for another person or thing that accepts them for who they are no matter what other circumstances may dictate otherwise. Love is a binding force. It is that invisible agent that makes us all one, really. It is the “sameness” that underlies the differences and diversity of all things. We all share life as well, but life is just “living” …unless we are “loving.” With love, life feels unified, without it we are simply surviving. Love is connecting. Connecting with ourselves, with others, with life.
And isn’t that what texts are for, typically, connecting? Sure there’s detail of this or that, but isn’t even the detail about connecting? I connect with you to relay something I want, need or desire you to see about me. I’m reaching out to connect or be connected. I’m reaching out to love. Even an angry text is trying to connect. Even screaming out in all caps: “JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!” is actually saying: “Connect with me long enough to hear this message loud and clear, I want to break connection!”
So if texting is about connecting, shouldn’t the phone assume I’m intending to “love” every time? It’s much harder to “live” without “love,” I vote our iPhones all reflect this in auto-correct. I actually vote we all reflect this in as many ways possible, as often as possible.
I vote we “live” to “love,” and no longer “love” to “live” solely. I think it is a subtle, yet profound distinction that makes all the difference in the world.
Originally published at medium.com on December 6, 2018.
