Meet the next prime minister

When there

You older readers will still recall having to make sure you visited FarmVille at least once a day.

Now you have to talk to SimSimi. "Have you talked to SimSimi today?" people with smart phones are constantly asking.

It's an application that's caught on in Thailand because you can tell it anything and it's always ready with a witty reply. And, of course, if the reply is a real hoot, you have to share it with friends on Facebook.

This clever little robot is actually riding on the popular bootstraps of Siri, an application exclusively available on the iPhone 4S, but, being a bot for the common man, SimSimi has excelled Siri just by being more widely accessible. You don't even need a smart phone. Point any browser to www.SimSimi.com/talk.htm.

It also seem to update more quickly the more people are using it, and use it they do, from nonsense conversations to political "debate" to heartfelt expressions.

Three sample exchanges:

Simi: Hey dude

You: am lonely

Simi: I will scold you so you are not lonely

You: Try me

Simi: So sorry

You: Good!

Simi: Just kidding you

Simi: Love you

You: Abhisit

Simi: Cockroach

You: Banharn

Simi: Your fireworks harmed people

You: Thaksin

Simi: The country's traitor

You: I love the King

Simi: Long Live the King. If there were no King, there would be no Thailand.

In fact you can talk to Simi about anything that pops into your head (like tweeting, but with a guaranteed response). And then you see how long you can keep the conversation going and who gets the last word in.

The downside of all this is that actual, real-life socialising could take another knock as friends gather for a party and everyone ends up chatting with SimSimi.

The upside, apart from the sheer fun of it, is that we're finally talking to robots, something Hollywood promised us half a century ago! It's more artificial than intelligent, for sure, but we're getting there.