D: I recently bought one of these new computers that talks--it's called a text-to-speech      system. And boy do we have a lot in common.

Y: You lost me, Don. Who do you have a lot in common with?

D: The computer. His name is Hopper. And I can just tell that he and I are going to be      good friends.

Y: But he's not a person. He's a computer. His voice is computer-generated.

D: But he talks just like me, Yael. It's like we're made of the same cloth. Like we're      birds of a feather. Two peas in a pod.

Y: The computer's voice sounds like your voice only because someone has set the      voice's frequency and other parameters. Studies have been conducted that show that      people attribute personalities to computers based on how fast and how loud they      talk. And those studies show that people prefer computer-generated voices that      sound like their own voices.

D: Well even if my computer doesn't really have a personality and isn't really like me, I      like to think of him that way. Now when I'm doing work at the computer, I sort of      feel like Hopper and I are in it together, like we're just hanging out.

Y: You should be careful, though, Don. The study also shows that if a person likes the      computer-generated voice, he's more likely to be influenced by that voice. In other      words, he might be more likely to make frivolous purchases over the Internet.

D: Oh, I haven't bought anything frivolous, just stuff that I really need, like a better      speaker system so I can hear my buddy, Hopper, wherever I am in the house.  

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