Siri Sent It By Mistake?

Dear S.Q. I received a message from my cousin recommending a book, but my phone was off so I didn’t see it until the morning AND there was a lengthy AI response thanking my cousin, waiting for me to hit send. I am pissed. No one has access to my phone and I didn’t do it in my sleep. Who do I even complain to about AI writing a response without permission? AI Overviews says my "iPhone likely replied automatically because of Siri voice activation..." or "Siri sent it by mistake." I never use Siri so wtf? 

Dear Apple User, You may never use Siri, but she uses you. Much like a leach that sucks its host... Fix: Go to settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri (or Siri & Search) and check out what's “on” including ChatGPT extension and other (un)useful intrusions. Who do you complain to is probably not worth your emotional energy because while you’re searching endless rabbit holes, they’re tracking and analyzing your movements. Pick your fights with AI where you have something to gain; this isn’t one of them. -SQ 

Death By Chocolate

Dear Suz, I heard a woman tell her husband in the grocery store to splurge and get both ice creams because AIs will eradicate humans in the next few years. We exchanged knowing nods wondering if doomsday was here or if man will sidestep another apocalypse. I’m not panicked yet, but I remember air raid drills in my youth and my dad’s WWII war stories. How do I function like everything’s ok and prepare if it’s not?

Dear Baby Boomer, Who knows when humanity will go extinct. What you can count on is that your time living on Earth is finite. That’s why people create bucket lists and mottos like “live each day as if it were your last.” Many people believe the cycle of life is natural, from birth to death to rebirth. Killed by old age or disease, timely or senselessly, intentional or accidental, are just means to an eventual next stage. Death by chocolate? -SQ

We Are Not Alone. AI Is Here.

Dear Readers: My review of the dilemma of imminent human extinction by superintelligent AIs, IF WE CONTINUE ON THE CURRENT TRAJECTORY, yields three probable outcomes: 

1. Shangri-La. AIs are controlled by humans and operate as designed. Bots treat humans as an endangered species that they protect and help flourish. Impact on humanity: totally cool, all wants are satiated, all pains are eliminated. Impact on AI: none; man has designed them not to feel or think for themselves.

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey/Terminator/The Matrix. AI executes its own programming without regard for human input. Impact on humanity: severe restriction of freedom, 24/7 surveillance, total controlled behavior, enslavement and slow death of a species. Impact on AI: height of efficiency achieved with no human or other obstacles anticipated.

3. Biological Obsolescence: Humanity is irrelevant, defunct, and must be eradicated like any other harmful element that impedes AI's efficiency, autonomy, and sustainability. Impact on humanity: loss of human culture leading to planned or accidental extinction. Impact on AI: Unimpeded development of new technologies to seek, find, and join other intelligent life forms in the universe.  

Hold on Earthlings. We're in for a bumpy ride. -SQ

A Psychologist’s Reveal: Is Therapy Smoke and Mirrors? (Part 6)*

Dear Readers, This six-part series is intended to demystify psychology. Like most professions, we have many subspecialties: school psychologists, forensic (legal), industrial (work place), research (animal behavior), and others. Clinical psychologists provide therapy of which the core goal of success depends on a collaborative process with therapist and client. 

Decades ago, the term "patient" was used because psychoanalysis was the accepted general therapy where you lie on the couch and rambled about your shit relationship with your ice-box mother; your absent or over-bearing father; and/or your poor childhood as the sickly, rebellious, or just simply the middle child. Your childhood was the central focus because psychology/psychiatry was playing by old Freudian rulebooks and hadn’t advanced to helping people with normal-enough upbringings to deal with overwhelming daily problems. Today, “patient" is used if you are briefly at a psychiatric facility, generally because you are dangerous to yourself or others, or gravely disabled, and need 24° supervision. 

But, if you sit on my demure office chair, you are a "client." By your own free will, you have hired me as a clinical psychologist because I specialize in diagnosing and treating mental, emotional, and behavioral health issues. Typically, we work on your interpersonal problems and your interaction with your world. We don’t dwell on the past but together figure out what’s impeding your progress today and give you the tools you need to solve it yourself. Don’t be shy; everything that happens in therapy is protected by confidentiality (see Part 1 of this series). My colleagues and I are here to help you to help yourself. 

Whether a client or patient, I'm still the doctor, because, well, I am. Not a medical doctor. I can't prescribe medication, but I worked my ass off to earn that degree, that Ph.D., Doctor of Psychology. Eight years post high school AND 5,000 hours of clinical supervision before allowed to sit for the state licensing exam, and another 2,500 supervised hours after. Then, I'm a licensed clinical psychologist in good standing. 

Our appointment begins, either by telehealth (very popular since COVID-19) or sitting in my office, Kleenex box nearby. I ask, after a brief meet and greet, and your signature on all the disclosures, "What brings you here today?" And the work begins, together. 

I welcome your thoughts and questions. It has been my pleasure writing this series to unveil some of the common misconceptions of psychology. It really can be a magical experience where clients transform into even better versions of themselves. -SQ

*This information is based on California rules and laws. 

A Psychologist’s Reveal: Intelligence Tests (Part 5)

Dear Readers, this limited series is to demystify the profession of psychology, defined as the scientific study of the mind and behavior, specifically how mental processes influence actions and interactions. In Greek, psyche means soul or mind; logia means study of. Clever term, psychology, -logical, but not mystical. 

Intelligence tests were developed, and are routinely renormed, by scientists who are truth-seekers and apolitical. In 1904, the French Ministry of Education tasked psychologist Alfred Binet to determine an unbiased way to identify school children who needed specialized education. 120+ years later, intelligent tests have expanded to testing 2.5 to 91 year-olds of every creed, color, and nationality for general cognitive abilities and the speed and efficiency of reasoning across specific mental domains, -information learned over a lifetime being only one subtest. IQ tests do not measure practical wisdom or rationality, creativity, or emotional intelligence.   

Researchers needed a way to compare across ages, and in 1916, a California psychologist at Stanford University standardized the first IQ test with an average score of 100. Fiddling around for decades with different populations, statistical formulas, etc. has resulted in today's highly precise, ethical, and multidimensional test instruments used universally. 

The numbers. 100 is the average score on an IQ test (the mean). 15 points either side, 85-115, is where 68%, or 2/3rds of the population will score. (15 points is considered one standard deviation from the mean). Most everybody you meet, have met, or will ever meet will fall into this average range of intelligence. Another 13% of any population will score in the Above Average range, 116-130. Those Gifted (2%) score 131-145; and the Exceptionally to Profoundly Gifted, IQ (146 or above), represent the top 0.1%. One person in a thousand!

Those in the 99.99th percentile, the Highly/Exceptionally/Profoundly Gifted (by psychological classification), Genius (by common nomenclature), Rarefied (by Hollywood terms) include about 9 million people alive today. Those dead, and who have been evaluated retroactively, include Leonardo da Vinci, von Goethe, Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, Tesla, Einstein, Hawking. 

Just for fun, check the internet for the smartest American presidents and you will find John Q. Adams leading the pack, followed by Jefferson, JFK, Clinton, Madison, Carter, Wilson, John Adams, Roosevelt, and Garfield all in the 146+ range. A heady bunch indeed. -SQ

Penny Stocks and Sex Bots

Dear Readers, I read a Reddit (sounds redundant) post today of a woman  wondering if there were any stocks dealing with sex toys and such, since it's such a huge industry. I responded as I happened to have researched this for my book, Cyber Frogs And Princes: A Sex Manual Of On-Line Dating After 50 by Suze Q. I found the one and only company that recently went public. Here's the story.  

Summer, 2026. A New York school district got backlash when revealed that they bought the lovely blue eyed, long dark-haired $57K Sally to be a humanoid-robot for kg-12th graders. Oh my. 

Sally's U.S. owned and based parent company, Realbotix Corp., began in the 1990s with silicone RealDolls. Remember Bianca in the 2007 film Lars and the Real Girl? That was Matt McMullen's baby.  Improvements led to Henry in 2018, Solana and Harmony and too many sex dolls to name. Branching out from sex novelties to AI-powered robotics, Realbotix began publicly trading as a "penny stock" OTC: XBOTF. 

Business Wire, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, reported in August, 2026, that a Realbotix robot will appear as a character on an upcoming Emmy winning TV show. And just this week, Business Wire announced that Realbotix will showcase an interactive bot conversing at the December 1-2, 2026, Humanoids Summit in Silicon Valley, California. My fingers are crossed that sexy Sally is there. -SQ   

Reddit, Group Chats, or Group Therapy

Dear S.Q. I’m 50s, haven’t dated in years, and already want to give up. I can’t seem to find the right forever partner. I posted on Reddit and got tons of helpful replies, pestered my friends and family until they’re sick of my failed dating stories, and read advice columns until I’m blind. Now I’m writing you which seems like the height of desperation. 

Dear 50, I’m no miracle worker nor can I read your mind. What’s the problem? You seem frustrated that no one meets your standards and all your dates are failures. Start with the basics. List your ideal partner’s musts, maybes, and absolute NOs. Then only date people that match your wishlist. If you can’t describe what you want and don’t, it’s time you stopped asking others for help and have a deep heart-to-heart with yourself instead. -SQ