Whhheeeerrrrrrree Aaaarrrrrre Yoooouuu?

In the Goofy Movie, Goofy takes many moments to talk to inanimate objects.
"Goodbye House, Goodbye Mailbox, Goodbye Pile of Broken Wood," is the often quoted line.

Did you ever talk to inanimate objects? Well, Matt does. And he doesn't just talk to them. He questions them. When he's trying to find his phone, keys, wallet, belt, sock, cup, food, anything really. He proceeds to ask them where they are. As if they are going to actually answer. And its not just some, "Where are you phone?" statement. No, no, no. Its full on song. "Ppphhhhoooonnnnnee, Whhheeeerrrrrrree Aaaarrrrrre Yoooouuu? Whheeerree Aarrreee Yyoouuu, Phone? I really miiiisssss yyyoooooouuuu. Cooommme Back phhhoooonnnne." The worst part is he's got me doing it now too!

So then, I wonder, why do I talk to inanimate objects? Why does my brain think that will help? Do I actually think its going to answer? Why don't we try calling the phone? Is it too much to work to run around the house listening for the ring? But really, is it any less work than wandering around the house singing for it? Why not ask an animate object to help the search effort? Is it that I feel loney and need more friends? Does talking to it, make the search more efficient? Could it be that the objects have traversed many homes and many locations with me and deep down I have a strong emotional attachment to them? Or is it some chemical imbalance that most of the human race suffers from but doesn't know it because everyone just thinks that it is 'normal'?

But then I think back to 10 years ago, when I first found out about speech recognition software. It was all the rage, and I was certain it was set to take over the world. That not long from then I would be opening my front door with my voice, turning on lights, running the air conditioning, managing the house security system with a simple vocal command. What happened to all this advanced technology? When is the Smart House going to be common and not the Sci-Fi dream? Or perhaps the world really is afraid of a hostile take over? (see The Terminator, The Matrix, or even Disney has one)

Alas, perhaps I am still hoping that in 7 years I will be able to enter my house with my thumb print, vocally ask for my fruit to come down out of the ceiling, and for my take-out pizza to need a 10 second rehydration to be piping hot. (see Back to the Future, II)