Over 16,544,982 people are on fubar.
What are you waiting for?
According to the World Book of Facts, there are 6, 602, 224, 175 people in the world. Well, actually there were that many in July..who knows how many there are now.
So how come I can never get one of them on the phone anytime I want to talk to someone about billing or services for anything? You name it, they have a computer generated voice or a Web site designated to talk to me rather than a person.
I can't ask those things questions and I don't really trust them. I like people. I work with at least 50 every day and none of them run away screaming. Well, OK, I don't see them running away screaming.
My point is that I can talk to people and usually figure out what they need or what I need to solve the situation at hand. Case in point, I own a prepaid cell phone. I absolutely refuse to get into one of those contracts for phone service. I don't use the phone that often so there really isn't a need. The phone I own has to be loaded with minutes every so often. When I first bought the phone, that was an easy procedure. I dialed a few digits and a person came on line and talked to me about what I wanted.
Then the service became part of a bigger service and the person went away. They replaced the person with a fairly usable computer generated system. It took me about three extra minutes to do the whole process, but I could deal with it.
The next time I dialed for a reload, I heard directions to a Web site. First I had to find the Web site, then I had to create a bunch of passwords and other things that I now have to remember and pray that no hacker...well, hacks.
So, my question is: Where are all of the people? Will it really come down to a world where we never talk to one another because we are so busy talking to machines?
I hope not. I don't like machines. I don't trust them and I saw "I Robot". And, I don't know Will Smith so I am up a technical creek without a memory chip.
