Tom Kando
On February 24, I posted a piece titled Am I Becoming a Luddite? I pointed out some of the dangers of AI. I am not alone in feeling apprehensive about artificial intelligence. For example, Microsoft Chief Economist Michael Schwarz predicts that AI will cause real damage (Sacramento Bee, May 5, 2023).
Now I want to complain about something related, namely my dysfunctional relationship with machines and technology. We are becoming more and more the prisoners of our machines. I increasingly hate my machines.
It starts with the telephones - both land lines and cell phones: The dozens of daily robocalls and junk text messages (among others, an insane number of political requests for money). To be sure, there is “call screening,” “call blocking,” “unsubscribe,” etc. but these often only work temporarily and they raise different problems, such as missing the occasional important call.
Then there are the computers, the iPads, etc: The daily torrent of spam and junk e-mails, plus technical problems. For instance, I have over a hundred Kindle books on my Apple iPad. The other day I wanted to alphabetize them. I first called Apple for help, but they passed the buck and told me to call Amazon, because Kindle is an Amazon app. I spent the next three hours on the phone with an Amazon technician who tried to guide me. She was difficult to understand due to her accent, and together we did NOT succeed. After a wasted afternoon, my Kindle e-books are still pell-mell.
Of course, there are innumerable other machines that surround us - in the kitchen, the laundry room, the garage, in every other room, even in the backyard.
The kitchen alone has more machines than a factory: Ovens, stove, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, garbage disposal, egg beaters, blenders, food processors from France, on and on... Dishwashers, for instance, can be a real bitch. Nowadays they come with a huge array of options, including Wi-Fi. Our last one malfunctioned and we tried to fix it for months, calling the repair guys of course, but we finally had to throw in the towel and replace it. Our timeshare dishwasher in Hawaii kept beeping all night, depriving us of our sleep, until they fixed it.
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