I wish I could do more things over the Internet.
And it’s not because I dislike people. I enjoy the company of humans and I’ve been known to even initiate gatherings of humans so that a medium-sized group may form in a single location and we may rejoice over a common interest or goal, like football or cheating at a high-stake baccarat game.
But people make mistakes and people have feelings and other things to do. Interactions over the Internet are different, especially if there’s nothing but bits on the other end of the conversation.
I renewed my car registration over the Internet a few days ago, painlessly. I was able to enter in a code specific to my car, view the bill for car registration this upcoming year, and pay with a credit card in a matter of minutes. The system was able to serve me specifically, without time pressure, and I was able to finish the whole thing without ever having to wait in line or dig my license out of my wallet.
I enjoy ordering food over the Internet because it means that the restaurant gets an exact printout of my order and there’s less room for human error. It also means that I don’t have to wait on the phone while other orders are taken, repeat myself over a bad connection, give my address every time, or remember to ask if I can pay with a credit card before I hang up.
The Internet codifies routine interactions that many people do so well. I can do them efficiently and at my own pace, without needing to disturb anybody else.
The imagined future of a few decades ago was wrong. Computers aren’t here to become intelligent and kill us and the nobody has a personal robot that looks like a person. No, machines are used to make sure that when we order our custom pizza with a different sauce and two different toppings on each half, we get what we ordered. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.