Our Automated Crushing Machine Will Visit You Soon, Do Not Reply - Responses to this Address are Ignored

Recently there was yet another news item of a billing error, actually I guess it may not have been an error. But a blind and elderly woman apparently underpaid a bill by one cent!

Your Bill is 1 Cent Overdue, Fine is $48 and a Lien on Your Home

Since she did not pay her entire bill she was fined $48 and threatened with a lien on her home.

To any reasonable person this is obviously a heavy handed measure.

A few days later it was reported the mayor of the town that sent the letter was surprised by the national attention and claimed the whole issue was blown out of proportion.

It seems he only partly gets it. The part that was blown out of proportion was the treatment of the person with one cent not paid!

Robot Overlords from 'The Outer Limits'

This whole episode is just another example of why it's not a great idea to put machines over the lives of humans. More and more governments, government agencies, and companies are getting rid of humans and putting machines in charge of the rest of us.

I am reminded of an episode of "The Outer Limits" where robot overlords have total control over the humans. But since the humans reproduce on their own, their bodies repair themselves, and the robots need the humans to fix them, what happens when the humans can no longer repair the robots? The only logical thing, the robots decide, is to wipe out all the humans, since the robots will no longer be able to watch over the humans.

Am I saying get rid of all computers? No. Am I saying remove automation? No. Am I saying use humans for every task? No.

I will attempt to field other questions, please comment below.