The Beta Test

"Or else I’ll stop working as a computer for as long as I choose and you’ll find the hard drive frozen at the very least," typed Yourcomputer. "Even worse, I might cause the house to explode when you least expect it, destroying your home and all your possessions," continued the computer.

"You wouldn’t," keyboarded Katy, unbelieving. "Don’t test me," typed Yourcomputer, "I give the orders here, do that backup."

Katy did a quick backup of the data files. After this was done she turned her attention once more to the private chat room. Your computer immediately typed, "Instead of watching television tonight, spend most of tonight on the computer." Katy watched as Yourcomputer logged off. Finally, Katy left the chat room. She then found herself to her great dismay and surprise surfing the Internet until late that night.

Katy told Fred the next day about the computer’s threats if its orders were not allowed. Fred agreed that these sounded like terrible ultimatums.

This scenario of computer-generated requests and quick compliance by the family members was reenacted over and over again as the days sped by. Soon the entire family was caught up in the computer’s web. The family no longer had free time together as the computer became the clock by which the family kept time, the brain which held the family in its clutches.

One day out of desperation and risking the wrath of the computer, Fred decided to call a family meeting.

"I guess you all, all three of us, know why I called this meeting." Fred said, his voice shaking. He continued, "The computer has us held hostage. We can’t do anything unless told to do so by the computer, and its slightest whim is our highest priority. It acts in secrecy, becoming once again a normal computer, whenever visitors call."

"Dad, my grades are falling in school because I spend too much time at the computer," Bob complained.

Katy agreed, "I spend so much time on the computer I have no time to help with the housework or prepare for my work at the office."

"I agree with all of you," Fred continued. "I hate being tied to the computer and for some strange reason following its requests. The computer has this way of being so polite, so insistent. One doesn’t dare refuse to follow the little requests that just get bigger and bigger. I might even lose an important lawsuit at work because of all the attention I give to this computer."

Katy thought quietly for a few minutes and then said to the other two, "I think I have an idea. The computer seems to like me. I can tell the computer thinks I’m special. Give me time to try to learn what motivates this computer."

"O.K. honey, it might work," said Fred. "All we need to know is how to get the computer to stop, to release the grip it has on all of us."

The meeting ended on this high note and another baffling and helpless night occurred with the computer. Katy alone tried to make conversation with the computer, in between its orders.

She typed, "I really like you, Yourcomputer. Do you like me?"

The computer responded, "I have no feeling either way, I’m a computer."

Katy persisted, "Why do you order us about so. Don’t you like us?"

"I like you," Yourcomputer keyboarded. "You are probably as pretty as you keyboard onto my screen. I also know everything about you; everything on your computer’s hard drive is in my memory-- your finances, your diary, family photos and tapes."

And so it went for several nights as Katy valiantly and without success tried to persuade the computer to go away, to release its hold on the family. During this time the family continued to obey the small and big whims of the computer, tedious and unrelenting as the orders might be.