“Everybody’s talking to computers, they’re all dancing to a drum machine.”
It was true when Rick Springfield wrote and performed this phrase in 1983 and it has solidified itself as a way of life in 2023. I know I am overstating the obvious fact that computers, mostly in the form of cell phones, are being used by everyone, at every moment and in every place we can imagine. They have become a necessity. If you check in at a restaurant, you will be asked for your cell phone number so the host may text you when your table is ready.
Walk into certain medical facilities and your check-in will be done at a touchscreen terminal. Even your identification and insurance card will be scanned by the terminal. Whatever you do, don’t make a mistake because then you will have to talk to … well, no one. There is no one there to talk to! The lab technician may be able to answer some questions but any answers will be reinforced by a phrase similar to, “If it’s in the computer that way, then that’s what we do.”
Am I ranting? Yes, yes I am. I refuse to believe that I have become the crotchety old man who shakes his fist at new technology. I was one of the first in my class back in the ’80s to touch the awesome Commodore VIC 20 home computer. I did not hang onto my old Royal manual typewriter. I embraced Word and the digital processing of forms.
The problem is that the system does not always work. We need a fail-safe. This fail-safe needs to be more than just one person. We have learned from just about any movie dealing with machines that the person watching over the machines is often disabled by the machine or just not willing to care about what is going on and the machines run amok. I know it is fiction but it still seems like a lesson.
“I know I’m living on the outside scared of getting caught between. I’m so cool and calculated in a modern world.”
That’s Springfield’s next line and except for the being cool part, it describes me to a certain extent. I’m playing by the rules. I’m filling out the forms online. I’m using the app to make a payment. Heck, I think it is even kind of nice when I can order, pay for, and pick up carryout without speaking to anyone. I could even have it delivered and not leave the house or my dogs but that’s when my inner grumpy old man shines through and grumpy old men never want to pay a delivery fee if we can do it ourselves.
Springfield’s heroine in the song, Sally, really did have it right. “We all need the human touch.” Not everything can be solved by the touch of a button. The computer screen is not always right. One person’s problem does not always fit on a pre-recorded list of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions).
I ran into a recent problem when I did everything the computer asked to schedule a medical test. I was assured by the doctor’s office that everything was set. When I went to have the test done, I was turned away because the computer said I could not have the test done at the location where I had made the appointment. A location that is affiliated with my doctor. A location I have regularly had the same tests done in the past with the same insurance. A location my son, with the same tests, doctor, and, insurance was processed moments before I walked up to the window. It does not present a beacon of hope for the medical conglomerate. My doctor and his staff confirmed that all the right steps were followed and made sure that I was taken care of.
It was the human touch that made things right and not the computer screen. Human beings had to ask the questions and other human beings had to give the answers. We have to have this give-and-take between the digital world and the human world.
It feels like it is too much of a rip-off of a bad science fiction movie to say this but we all just need to work and get along with computers. Like anything else, we must take what shows up on the screen with a grain of salt. Make sure what the computer tells you is correct to the best of your knowledge.
If the computer told you it will take about two hours and fifteen minutes to get to Indianapolis, then that’s a pretty decent guide. If you go into the hospital to have a splinter removed and all of a sudden they start prepping you for a lobotomy, I’d start asking questions.
And if the person behind the keyboard tells you that’s what the computer says, get another person.
A link to the song Human Touch by Rick Springfield on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yo0uTu2uLtI