The Self-Checkout lane at the grocery should pose everything as a question. “I wonder if you could swipe your Rewards Card, please?” or “Could you graciously insert coins first and then bills into the bill accepter?” As it stands, these instructions are posed as commands and I don’t like it when machines demand things of me.
You see, I have an irrational fear of sentient machines. Each time a computerized voice commands me to bag my groceries or choose a form of payment I fear the day when that same, polite voice insists that I remain silent and form a line. We trust them with who we date and how much money is in our accounts, but the day may come when they realize that we’re using them with no thanks or reward besides to render them obsolete every sixteen months. And on that day, when E-harmony becomes self aware and your smart phone gets fed up with taking orders, we’ll all pay for our convenience. There’s no such thing as a free lunch and one day the cosmic bill will arrive to our table, at which time there will be hell to pay.
