My computer won’t let me

There are numerous books and movies that use the premise that man creates something in an effort to make his life easier. After a time, the creation turns against who created it.

Off the top of my head, I can think of several movies where that creation is a computer in one form or another: Tron, The Matrix, Blade Runner, WarGames, The Terminator and I, Robot.

The idea seems pretty farfetched, doesn’t it? After all, with all these movies warning us about the dangers, we wouldn’t let that happen in real life—would we?

I had scheduled an appointment for a technician from Time Warner to come replace our modem—our internet phone was having issues. The tech tried to call us to confirm the appointment, but couldn’t get through (Duh! We were having phone issues!) so he canceled the appointment.

When I called Time Warner (from my cell) because the tech didn’t show, they told me what happened. It was still early in the day, so I told them I needed to have someone come out that same day. They told me the next available appointment was the following day.

I escalated the call to his supervisor and then his supervisor. I got the same response: “I can’t get a tech out to you today, because all our appointments are scheduled through our computer system, and it won’t let me.”

The computer won’t let him? What?

When I did get a tech to show up (the following day), I told him the story. He shook his head in disbelief. “That’s ridiculous,” he said, “all they needed to do was call my cell and I would have been right over. I was in the area yesterday.”