The ancient, mystical image of a snake swallowing its tail is called an ouroboros. It symbolizes the endless cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. What should we call an Alexa smart speaker swallowing itself? Progress?

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       Ray Lum lives in Arlington, where he uses his Amazon Alexa to listen to music, get weather updates and to pester with such questions as “Where does the light go when you turn off the switch?” What Ray doesn’t do is use Alexa to listen to the news on WTOP. For that, he utilizes a technology that would be familiar to Guglielmo Marconi, if the late Italian inventor was somehow reanimated and dropped into Ray’s kitchen: Ray turns on the radio in his breakfast nook.

       There’s a promotional ad that runs on WTOP in which a voice proclaims: “We know you’re listening to WTOP for the latest news, traffic and weather on your commute but what about when you’re at home? Listening to WTOP on your smart speaker is easy. Just say, ‘Alexa, open WTOP’ or ‘Okay Google, play WTOP.’ ”

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       When those magic words issue forth from Ray’s kitchen radio, that’s exactly what happens: The two smart speakers in his other rooms spring to life, broadcasting WTOP.

       “That's when I have to go out to the living room and dining room to deactivate my smart speakers,” Ray said.

       I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that machines are talking to each other. Not long ago, I got a new washer and dryer. Among the setup instructions was a section on how to control them with an app on my phone. I didn’t bother to download it. (It might have been a different story if they had offered a “Find my sock” app.)

       These days, we’re all living in a Philip K. Dick short story. Androids may not dream of electric sheep, but Alexa sleeps with one ear open, always listening for her “wake word.” To prevent this from happening by accident, advertisers can equip their radio or TV ads with an audio watermark, what’s called acoustical fingerprinting.

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       This technique was in the news in 2019, when there were Super Bowl ads for various smart speaker products. As Amazon described it at the time: “To produce an acoustic fingerprint, we first derive a grid of log filter-bank energies (LFBEs) for the acoustic signal, which represent the amounts of energy in multiple overlapping frequency bands in a series of overlapping time windows.”

       Got that?

       Amazon says its Echo devices can also check themselves against known instances when “Alexa” is used in media. The company asks advertisers to provide the ad to Amazon 12 days before it starts to run so they can work their audio magic. WTOP tells me they haven’t done this.

       And Amazon tells me Echo users can choose other wake words, including “Echo,” “Computer,” “Amazon” and “Ziggy.” You do that by saying, “Alexa, change the wake word” or using the Alexa app. As always when it comes to technology, it’s the humans who have to make accommodations.

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       Said Ray: “It’s a minor irritation, but it still bothers me.”

       This is as good a place as any to point out that The Washington Post is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

       Remembering sacrifice

       On Memorial Day afternoon, about two dozen people assembled under the hot sun at the corner of 16th Street and Alaska Avenue NW to reclaim a bit of history. A plaque was unveiled celebrating the District’s first memorial to residents killed during World War I.

       It was an echo of a ceremony held on May 30, 1920, when a crowd gathered there to dedicate 530 maple trees planted on both sides of 16th Street from Alaska Avenue to Varnum Street. Sunk into the ground at the base of each tree was a small concrete plinth to which was affixed a tiny copper name tag.

       Time and the elements — not to mention lawn mowers and errant automobiles — were not kind to these little markers. Traces of only a few remain. The new plaque recounts the earlier memorial’s history and lists the names of all the war dead. The project was overseen by Barbara Bates and William Brown of the Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of the District of Columbia (AOI). Financial support was provided by AOI, the District chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and D.C. Water.

       Why D.C. Water? That corner houses a pumping station that was remodeled a few years ago. The plaque is affixed to a handsome brick retaining wall.