do not confuse speed with haste

Benjamin Ferran Le Figaro

It was the time of audio cette players, which we had fun rewinding by hand with a pencil. The time of piano lessons on Wednesday afternoons and of this teacher to whom I had to announce myself through an intercom, like a metronome. An insurmountable ordeal. A stutterer since childhood, one day I found myself paralyzed in the lobby of the building, unable to say a word. I had then worked out a clever stratagem to thwart the blocking of my speech. A few words recorded in advance in my room – “Hello, it’s Benjamin” – which I had my Walkman say when the time came, pressed against the intercom, to get me to open it. I spoke through the machine. I entrusted him with my voice, fluid and without a hitch on the audio cette.

This anecdote resurfaced last Tuesday, when Apple announced a new function on the iPhone, called “Personal Voice”. It allows you to create an artificial version of your voice, and make it speak for you during calls…