Siri, Apple’s voice-recognizing personal assistant, will change the world. It’s just got to change some minds first. When and if it does, Apple’s dominance in personal devices will be sealed and intractable for decades. Here’s why and how.

Yes, after the initial “wow” of introducing and trying Siri, tech editors and the public began to realize Apple’s advertising communicated an experience far ahead of Suri’s true capabilities. Siri, once cool, quickly became the focus of jokes and mockery. Yet at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple seemed to double down on Siri. Integrating it with football scores, Facebook updates and more. Why?

Because Apple knows Siri represents the golden handcuffs that will further lock users into the Apple ecosystem. Willingly and gladly. Even when not using Apple products.

What made me realize this? Think Iron Man the movie. Then think of his cyber assistant, Jarvis. The heard-but-not-seen, ever-present digital personal assistant of Iron Man’s alter ego, Tony Stark. While integrated into Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor, Jarvis gives status reports, activates cool suit weapons and devices, on command. And when Tony is outside the suit. Jarvis is managing Stark’s home’s room temperature and lighting, home security and the rest of his devices.

Iron Man could hang up his suit one day, but as Jarvis basically wipes his rear end for him as his digital assistant, could he really get by without Jarvis? Without Jarvis managing all the little things around his life, life would be much harder (as hard as it could get for a billionaire).

We don’t have to be Tony Stark to experience that effect. Just have a really good Siri. One, that as Apple develops partnerships with car companies, house devices, appliance makers, TV, computers, Siri could be an intimate part of our lives. And if Siri does its job well, spoil us (or assist us) into submission. Like walking home to have the Siri software greet you, turn on the TV to the channel you want and start coffee and turn up the heat. Or forward and report the email and phone calls to your car (and also control the heat). So integrated and helpful, we won’t know what to do without it. And Apple.

Hence the golden handcuff opportunity of a fully developed Siri. Plus, as you can see, Siri is Apple’s way of getting a foothold into devices it currently does not make (Cars, Appliances). A position where Apple can be a part of our lives, not just a part of our computers.

And that’s critical as we are rapidly moving into a post-pc world. A world of smart devices, not smart computers. If Siri gets there first. It has the high ground to stop other tech companies from getting a firm foothold.

So we may be frustrated with Siri now, but soon it will likely own us. I for one, welcome my new overlord.