Machines are taking over our lives
Self-checkout in a supermarket with a closed notice. Credit: iStock
I think I am a typical senior citizen on Long Island. I play golf, do crafts, travel, go into the city and use a computer. But I also read books online, stream television shows, play games on the internet and buy products from Amazon. I have taken computer classes at the Northport library. I am not a geek, but certainly not illiterate about technology.
But lately, I wonder whether I am alone in my frustration with the direction things are heading. Let me be more specific.
Grocery stores look the same, with their food items and carts. But at my local Stop & Shop, you can check out all by yourself. Just scan your items, slide or insert your credit card and you are done. No more interactions with a live person — as long as you don’t need help. And Amazon is experimenting with a store that requires only a smartphone app, no checkout at all.
At the bank, you no longer need to actually go inside. You can deposit your checks with your phone at home, withdraw money with a few simple numbers at an ATM, and click your computer to transfer funds or pay bills. If you do go inside, your business with a teller might be conducted via vacuum tubes. That’s how it is at the Teachers Federal Credit Union in East Northport. That whoosh I hear has replaced friendly conversation.
Some of our traffic tickets are no longer handed to us by a person. A camera takes a picture of our car going through a red light, and we are sent a ticket. There is no, “Yes, officer, I’m sorry.” The polite, “Have a good day, ma’am, and drive more carefully,” is replaced by a written warning about noncompliance.
At tolls, E-ZPass and cash lanes will soon be replaced by overhead E-ZPass readers. Nonpayers will get bills after Big Brother takes photos of our license plates.
At restaurants, waiters used to make suggestions and compliment us on our excellent food selections. At Kennedy Airport, you can order off a tablet and a stranger will bring the food. Question: Should I tip the tablet 15 or 20 percent?
Have you interacted with an automated parking garage? At one in Baltimore, I took a ticket and parked my car. Easy enough. But don’t look for help leaving, because there isn’t a soul around, just a disembodied voice at the end of a phone line and a machine to take your payment and lift the gate.
Machines are on the job in so many other places.
In the subway, if your MetroCard malfunctions, no one is around to open the subway gate. And if you need directions, don’t think of stopping at a self-serve gas station. You’re better off just asking your phone for a route.
Students now have teachers inside computers. We talk to a robotic voice to make a doctor’s appointment. And we yell (quite loudly at times) at voice recordings to make our information understood.
I was brought up watching “The Twilight Zone” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Now I feel like I am living in a twilight zone, but it’s machines, not aliens, that have taken over people’s bodies.
Remember HAL, the computer who took over the space station in the science fiction movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”? I think this is already happening on Long Island.
Reader Madeline Nelson lives in Northport.
