Virtual Insanity
Every now and again, during the course of my work, I need people to sign documents. I do not make this request lightly. I will need to meet with the person to ensure the signing process is correct. It’s to confirm that there is no fraud or undue influence). The documents are normally of a vital or essential nature. They require a ‘real’ signature. As in, you pick up a pen (in your choice of colour, though blue or black is preferred). Using their hand, they then write their name. I don’t think this is a difficult request. We’ve signed documents for hundreds of years. And yet….
You have no idea how many times, after such a simple request, I get some sort of big sigh. Or at least an exhalation of breath. “Do I have to meet up with you to do that”? or “Can’t it be signed electronically?” normally follows. The answers are first, yes. You do have to take the time to meet with me to sign this. It really is that important. Secondly, no, a real signature happens to be critical in this instance. Unless of course you want this thing that I have taken time to ensure is correct to become invalid in the future.
I always politely explain the reasons and joke that it may seem archaic but that is the way it is. Inside my head the little voice is questioning how on earth life has come to this. Why we all seem too busy to do the important stuff. We have instead come to rely on technology (the digital signature or fingerprint, the meeting that isn’t in person and over a camera) to take away what we deem to be the trivialities of our life.
This week I met with a couple to sign some documents. They were happy to see me and did not argue about taking time to meet and go through the information. We sat in a meeting room with a smart conference table. As we went through everything, the lady opposite me asked a question. It had clearly been bothering her and she seemed confused: why were there holes in the middle of the table? In the centre of the large table were 4 circular holes. Probably for cables and such, I replied. For IT equipment, monitors and PC’s and printers. Oh, she said. “I understand now. I was trying to work out how you could fit a vase of flowers into them”.
Yesterday I read in the press an article all about AI – Artificial Intelligence. Living in my little provincial world, I’m not sure how this affects me on a daily level, other than being able to ask Alexa to make my to do list for me. However, to read the report in the paper, you’d think that it was something that should be at the forefront of my mind. Lots of billionaires (Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and others that are thought to be highly influential but have very little relevance to my world) have been warning about the rise of using and developing AI and have signed a letter asking for a ‘pause’ in the development of this.
I’ve also been finding out all about ChatGPT. Described as a ‘natural language processing tool’ it can help with writing emails and essays. My kids think this is great. Finally, they have found a way to get a machine to do their English homework. However, they’ve decided not to use Google Bard just yet. It isn’t so good and that might mean that they would have to use their own creativity.
Life is becoming unbearably confusing. Even doing the shopping is now giving me a headache. My daughter objected to the idea of putting items onto a conveyor at the checkout to be scanned by a real person. Why couldn’t we do Scan & Go, using the App and a QR code? My husband (in a previously unseen fit of what I think was total panic) told her that under no circumstances was he going to try to do that. He was just going to do the shopping as he always had done. He didn’t care how much she argued with him.
It seems though that there is becoming less need for human interaction and that over time the machines can just do it all for us. Sign papers, write stories, do the calculations. Everything I do is now on my phone; the banking, buying a train ticket, paying for car parking, finding a location. You can’t pay for anything with cash; you need to use your phone, with your wallet on it, or by using Stripe (something else that I found out about this week).
Earlier in the year, an emergency alert was sent to our phones. It’s how in future we will be told that there might be a threat to life. I can’t go anywhere without someone knowing where I am because of the tracker app on my phone. Consequently, I live in perpetual fear that if I lose my phone half of my life might well be lost with it.
The days of speaking to a person, either in person or by phone seem to have also long gone. I’m referred to the ‘webchat’ function or the ‘chat bot’. Or I just can’t get through. This is great if you have something basic to do that won’t take long. The trouble with this is that, normally, the whole reason for ringing someone is because you have a problem and problems (in my very small experience) tend to need a human to find a solution.
This of course is all good if you are able to keep up with it. But what about if you don’t want to or you can’t? Either because you don’t have the money (technology costs) or because you are at an age where you just don’t want to have to learn about this or physically can’t? My Mum is a good example of someone who is at that point in life. This week, all she wanted to do was find a replacement for a cast iron Chicken door stop that had broken. Mum doesn’t have a smart phone and is wary of internet shopping. She won’t be get any emergency warnings about danger to life. Mum also wants to go out into a real shop and look at real things.
I’ve got to find the said replacement door stop. She won’t be the only person in this position. I guess that the lady I met this week who wondered how to fit a vase into an oddly placed hole in the table that we were sat at, is much the same.
Carrying on like this is going to leave many people behind. This is where we are headed. In the words of the great Jamiroquai, this future is made of virtual insanity. And I’m not sure that I like it.
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