Blimey I didn't really expect any response to that post. It's a shame you can't ring my Land Line
I was trying to be clever with the thread title-always a bad idea. Primarily I was referring to humans not being able to recognise the value of speech anymore, rather than machines primed to do so! I just hadn't thought of that other aspect but you are right-it's the other side of the same coin I suppose! Either way I don't think speech recognition systems are at all OT in relation to these major changes taking place in just one generation. Already there will be children staring at handsets and saying "What's This?"
Dave W