It’s simple but controversial: Computers were more fun when they weren’t for everyone. There, I said it.
I stumbled upon this quote in a blog I follow, Welcome To BASIC, the specific post being Honest and Elitist Thoughts on Why Computers Were More Fun Before. That post leads to another detailed post, and like the author of Welcome To BASIC, I find myself nodding my head in agreement as I read through the post.
I have said this before and at times I feel bad about feeling this way, but I still hold the quote at the top of this entry to be quite true. Computers were much more interesting, and much less dangerous, when folks had to have a good understanding of how their computer actually worked. This approach made it easier for users to identify scams and viruses, and it conversely made it MUCH harder for ads and the like to infest our computing experience.
Yesterday we were expecting a package from UPS. At the end of the expected delivery window I received an email: we tried but there was no answer, see you on Monday. Since this was an important package that we needed yesterday I was torqued. I went to the UPS site and confirmed the status after punching in my tracking number. I needed to speak to a representative to find out what was going on.
The UPS website makes it really hard to find a phone number to reach a customer service representative. I kept getting pestered by some AI driven chat bot. After asking it a dozen times to just give me the customer service number, it finally acquiesced and I made the phone call.
The customer service representative answered the phone, “Hello?”
I barked, “is this UPS?”. I was not pleased.
I was assured it was UPS and after a long conversation, I got the representative to tell me the driver would be back that day to try again.
Where does modern technology fit into this?
- UPS insisted I use the app instead of calling them and even when I called them I had to spew nonsense into the AI software to finally give it a meltdown and route me to a customer service rep
- The reason we missed the UPS attempt is because the UPS man did hit the Ring doorbell button but then technology failed us. The dinger didn’t ding, it didn’t alert our smart speakers, and it didn’t send notifications to our devices. It just acknowledged a door bell button press into the log but it did absolutely nothing about it. The Ring device didn’t ring.
- I had to sign for the package on the website instead of a piece of paper when the delivery finally occurred.
- My fighting and screaming with the AI would have been enough to blow a human’s relay
So yes, it does make me sound like an old guy yelling at the clouds, but no, I don’t believe all of this modern technology has made things any easier for us and honestly, the horrid belief that these Large Language Models (AI) being shoved into everything is going to make things better is naive at best.
Especially since no one really knows how LLMs really work at all.
Maybe the little bit of glumness I’ve been feeling lately (have you see the state of the United States?) is impairing my thoughts on this subject, but I do miss a world where we used green screens and our interactions on the Internet were mostly text based.
I encourage folks to have a basic understanding on how all this works. It will make your technological life safer, more secure, and hopefully less stressful.
I’m going to go back to yelling at the clouds.
