I asked Sherry Turkle, founder of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self, whether I should be polite to my Amazon device — Of the many things I’m smug about, one of the strangest is that I say “please” to my Amazon Alexa. My shrill liberal voice soars as I declare, “Alexa, set a timer for three minutes, please” or “Alexa, set a timer for ten minutes, please” or “Alexa, set a timer…