Everyone is pretty much over Alexa except me

An increasing number of us have smart speakers (like Amazon Echos and Dots, and Google Homes) and virtual assistants (like Alexa) in their houses.

We actually have a small-but-growing army of such devices. There's one in our kitchen, one in our living room, one in our master bedroom, and one up in Terry's craft room/office.

At first I thought they were more about having fun than really doing anything useful.

As I've mentioned, I play Question of the Day trivia through our kitchen Echo, and sometimes I'll switch to blackjack or Song Quiz.

And of course if you ask Alexa to tell you a joke or recite a poem, she will do so, be it sometimes ever so cringeworthy.

But then we got a set of those smart lights in our bedroom. Every night when Terry and I are ready to go to sleep, one of us will say, "Alexa, turn out the lights."

And she does. Everything goes immediately dark.

This is, by now, old technology. But I am endlessly fascinated by it.

I tell Alexa to "turn on the lights to 53%," and she will turn on the lights to what I can only assume is exactly 53% of their maximum brightness.

It helps that I am easily amused. I just am. If you give me a fork and a string, I can find ways to amuse myself for hours. I laugh at almost anything and am impressed by the simplest tricks. I find life to to be a series of fun and enchanting events and experiences.

Which is why the act of being able to turn out my lights just by voicing it into existence blows me away. I will never get bored of this technology.

Alexa, give me the definition of "simple minded."