Trusting your Computer

An op-ed from today's New York Times talks about trusting your computer when it wants to automatically update.  The article reflects people's general ambivalent attitude toward computers: things that get in the way and boss you around and will theoretically make your life easier and more convenient but usually just slow you down and drive you nuts.  This attitude represents the ultimate failure of the modern computer industry: consumers just want something that works gracefully and simply, and the industry has consistently failed to provide.  Choosing Microsoft generally means putting up with the Evil Empire because it's cheap and, well, everyone else did it.  Choosing Apple instead usually means signing up for coolness and hipness, for a price.  Choosing Linux means you've already transcended this plane of existence, and now live in a world of glowing white light where computers do exactly what you want and everything is at peace.  (Unfortunately, it takes effort to achieve nirvana, and most people don't want to bother.)

How do updates fit into this?  Well, automatic updates should be seen as a panacea; finally, your computer can take care of itself.  It is no longer a baby that needs constant attention and can't really survive without your help.  Now it is a teenager; maybe it has some attitude, and doesn't always do things right, but it can generally fend for itself.

So why the continued resentment?  The op-ed points out that these automatic updates are at best opaque and at worst hostile.  Dell wants to run an update that sounds like it's upgrading your seats on an airplane.  The truth is it's probably just filling your hard drive with more software that you didn't ask for and won't use.  Microsoft wants to verify Genuine Advantage, which is thinly veiled corporate speak for "we want to make sure you didn't steal our software, you fucking thief."  When java updates itself, it shows me an advertisement, making me wonder if it really needed to update or just wanted to generate more ad revenue for Sun Microsystems.  (They've got to get money somehow, right?)

In my mind, the entire discussion of automatic updates misses the real issue.  People are annoyed by the prospect of computer maintenance and don't want to bother.  If the "check engine" light in your car goes on, you take it to the mechanic as quickly as possible.  But when a computer crashes, you don't literally get whip lash so you see it as less urgent.  My mother in law informed me today that every time her computer starts, it pops up a message asking for a yes/no response.  Of course she's never read the message.

That's the problem.

It doesn't actually take much time to read the notes your computer gives you, and software companies have started putting a lot of effort into making those notices easier to understand.  Most of the time it will be very obvious whether you want to hit the "yes" or "no" button.  Don't be afraid to read it and decide for yourself.  The worst that can happen is you'll break something and call me, which is what you're going to do anyway.  Part of the fear stems from an earlier time when pressing the wrong button could really break your computer.  But modern software is more robust and has better failsafes; there is almost no chance of you actually doing irreperable harm.

I don't want my mother in law to feel unfairly targeted here.  This fear and mistrust of technology has seeped into our culture like an affinity for fast food or rolling through stop signs.  It's ingrained and automatic and we don't even really think about it any more.  The only people who are immune to this are those who know what RAM stands for and think that the new Google OS might be really cool.

If I could boil this entire rant down to one sentence, it would be this: "When your computer tells you something, read it, think for yourself, and respond."

Our society has always harbored fantasies of malevolent machines with large biceps and Austrian accents rising up and enslaving us and becoming governor and making draconian budget cuts.  But come on, what are the odds that's really going to happen?  Seriously though - Mark Twain said "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and he was right.  Trust yourself to read a simple dialog box, trust yourself to make a good decision, and trust yourself to press the button.  The machines are only fearsome if we allow them to be.

J<