I was meeting someone at Grand Central Terminal last week (and for you non-NY‘ers, Grand Central Station is a subway stop; GCT is the commuter train station). We agreed to meet “at the clock” which everyone knows is the clock atop the information booth in the middle of the building.
I was a few minutes early and as I was waiting, I overheard the person in the information booth as she dealt with the line of folks needing help. What struck me wasn’t the speed with which she answered the questions (how the heck do you keep track of all those bus routes in your head?). Instead, I was impressed with something else, something that is the yet as unfound grail in digital, but one which Siri and other voice interfaces may be on the way to finding.