It's great until it isn't Misha Herwin

 

Two months into our new home and my PC is finally up and functioning and I feel that things are beginning to fall into place. In the intervening time I haven’t been without access to technology; I have a laptop, an i-pad and a smart phone, so I’ve been able to do my on-line banking, emailing and checking of social media. With a Kindle ap on my i-pad I’ve also been able to beta-read a friend’s latest ms. None of these devices, however, quite do it for me. My fingers are too old and crooked to use my smart phone quickly, I’m forever tapping the wrong letter or number and I find the laptop, in spite of having a separate mouse, somewhat cumbersome and not very easy to use. Besides which it has a will of its own.

Years ago I went on an alternative therapy course where it was suggested that computer chips can be manipulated by the power of the human mind. It may be that there is much research to back up this theory but whether there is or not, speaking from personal experience I would say that there is definitely an element of truth there.

Two examples spring instantly to mind. The first was years ago, when my husband Mike knew more about computers than I did and I relied on him to troubleshoot any problems. It was early January and over the Christmas holidays I had written a play for the school production, which was due to be staged in the summer. All that it needed was a final read through then I would copy it for the school secretary to print out for the cast and rehearsal would begin. As Mike was going to be away on business I set aside the first weekend to do just that.

Knowing that time was of the essence and I was going to be without my support system the computer did its thing and as soon as I sat down to work the dreaded notice “General Protection Fault” flashed across the screen. Mike’s solution from thousands of miles away was to talk me through the process of recovering my documents. Mine was to wait until he came home.

That sense of urgency is something my laptop is very good at picking up. Every Friday I have a video call with my friend Jonathan. He sends me a link, I click on it and we’re set for an hour and a half of catching up on the past week. At least that is how it should be. And indeed how it was for months and months. Recently, however, the laptop has decided that it will freeze my emails on a Friday evening. Email delivery will work perfectly for the rest of the week, but not the day I am scheduled to talk to Jonathan.

Sentient machines? Who knows? They are so much part of our lives we can’t do without them but do any of us really understand how they operate? Never mind all the concerns over AI I personally think we have other more immediate issues with technology to contend with.

The conclusion I am coming to is that it’s great when it works, infuriating when it doesn’t but it is always, unequivocally better to deal with a human being. Last week, I tried to buy some premium bonds and spent hours trying to negotiate their site. Totally frustrated and convinced that I must be missing something very obvious, I asked my son-in-law for help.  No luck. He kept coming up with the same loop that sent us back to the beginning of the process.

There was however a phone number and this morning, at eight o’clock I rang it. Within thirty minutes three lovely helpful people had set up my account.

So what I ask is really going on here?

Any answers on a postcard, delivered by carrier pigeon please.