Computer Says No

A very popular, but in my view highly overrated, TV programme of recent years was LITTLE BRITAIN. The sketches were too repetive, being repeated week after week with no real variation. Nevertheless, I have to acknowledge that the basic ideas behind many of the sketches were sharp and insightful. One of these was the 'computer says no' series, in which an unthinking employee of a travel agent pressed a few computer keys before coming up with the unhelpful response to a straightforward question of 'computer says no'.

This is a real phenomenon of our times. It is encountered in all sorts of situations. Certainly it isn't confined to travel agents, nor even just to computer systems. So determined have been the designers of systems and procedures been to make them 'idiot proof' that they discourage the use of any iniative on the part of the user. In other words, they encourage them to be idiots.

On a train

About a week ago, on a busy commuter train to Newport, I took the opportunity to study some of my fellow-passengers. Of the nine people in my line of sight, two were reading books, one was ostentatiously reading his Kindle, and no fewer than six were grey-facedly prodding their Smartphones or iPods.

Ten years ago the majority might have been reading 'Heat' or some such. Twenty years before that, they might have been reading books. If we believe the old b&w films, go back another twenty years and they might have been deep into their broadsheet newspapers. Fashions change. It's as well for the mental health of the i-prodders that they do.