Last week was occupied by travel and relative visiting in a 1,000-mile
trek. Actually, for the sake of accuracy, it was 958 miles, but 1,000 miles sounds like a lot more.

[cointent_lockedcontent]Due to some identity problems with my laptop (it refuses to operate as a laptop and will only work when physically attached), it was unable to go with me.

This wasn’t a concern on the trip, as my phone accompanied me, so sending and receiving emails was still going to happen.

Surprise, surprise. Disaster struck. Although receiving emails wasn’t a problem, there was no way to send them. This occurred between Charlotte and Fayetteville for absolutely no reason within my ability to comprehend.

Eight days later, upon returning home, I discovered my computer had drastically altered. It had developed an alternate personality during my absence. How can this be? Clearly my computer is suffering from schizophrenia. I checked to see if any of the scuppernong wine was missing, but it was all there. It has to be a chemical imbalance.

And it may not be suffering alone.

It is disturbing to find the search engine that you’re perfectly happy with replaced. Also, my home page has been replaced, and accessing email accounts is a complicated process taking up to five minutes. There are also some password problems.

In addition, my computer tells me I no longer have a printer, and the print icon has disappeared from my desktop.

When an attempt to reload the printer was made, the computer wouldn’t allow it.

When an attempt to replace the new search engine with the old one was made, the computer blocked it. The same thing happened when an attempt was made to restore the home page.

Every morning I fear turning on my computer. What will it do next? If it is capable, as it clearly is, of making decisions without human input, it could take over our home.

We may not be able to choose the programs we want to watch on TV. The car may not want to take me where I want to go.

It may decide to stop going to the grocery store or the post office.

Or maybe the computer will decide we don’t need to drive at all and will lock down the ignition.

What if it blocks our phone calls?

We’ll be isolated from humans and will be completely controlled by a small rectangular piece of equipment holding all the cards.

We’ve heard about how power corrupts and how unlimited power leads to total corruption.

The computer was left alone at home too long and began making decisions on its own. With no supervision, it decided to rule the world, one family at a time.

And before you dismiss this as pure fantasy, give it some thought. How can we keep these things from happening? Stay alert. You could be next.

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