“I hate it when machines are smarter than I am,” said Earl. “And, today, most of them are.”
I have to admit he is right. As he and I age, we are no longer on the cutting edge of life, much less technology. In fact, I sometimes feel like dinosaurs must have felt millions of years ago. They saw the future and it was confusing.
Two examples.
We were going to dinner a while back with some out-of-town friends who picked us up in a rental car. It had one of those gizmos where you plug in your address (Starting Point) and the address of the restaurant (Destination) and the car gives you explicit instructions on how best to get there. We thought we would test this, even though we were going to a place we’d been many times before.
We plugged in the appropriate information and received verbal instructions on how to proceed. Except that we took a short cut. “You are off the route,” an unidentifiable voice came from the auto. “You are off the route. Get back on the route.” It felt as if we were in the military. We never did get back on the route; instead, we turned the electronic mapper off. We had a good laugh about it, but what if someday we are required to stay on the route?
Then, yesterday we were shopping in Meijer’s. Since we purchased only one item, it seemed like a good idea to try the automatic cashier. We punched a “Start” button and were told to scan our item in the automatic scanner, which we did. Another unidentifiable voice commanded, “Put your scanned item in the grocery bag.” How could it know we were derelict? Logically, I imagine that the weight of the item in the grocery bag means something, but it is disconcerting that a machine knows whether you’re still holding the tuna fillets in your hand.
The next thing was to check out. The automatic cashier told us we owed $4.06. Earl deposited a $20 bill into the proper slot. In less time than a human could calculate, he received his $15.94 change. That’s when we broke out laughing.
I imagine someday our house will tell us when the floors need sweeping, the oven needs cleaning, and the beds need changing. And you know what? I’m not so sure that will be an improvement.
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