I negotiate over the phone, with a friendly human commercial, the price of a service that I will hire. We agree on a budget that seems good to both of us, with such kindness that anyone would say we've become friends, without even seeing each other's faces. Tomorrow we could, for example, go play tennis. Instead, I receive a typical e-mail from the company in question, with an attached invoice for an amount higher than what we had discussed. I call my business friend and explain to her in a friendly way, even if it's a bit sloppy.
Yes, I was going to call you, the rate is going up a bit because the system has adjusted the rate increase for me, he says tangled in a looping sentence from which I feared we would not get out. But it's not the price we agreed on yesterday, I insist almost morbidly: I know that the system is incontestable, precisely because I don't know what it is. I'm sorry, I'd like to, but I can't do anything - she laments affectionately - the system won't let me. And can't we talk to him? I argue, experimentally. The human chews a short silence. Until he lets out a giggle. Talk to the system? Why not?, I say, and we laugh; my friend is laughing at my jokes, we could go to the cinema. Instead, we both know that I will accept the budget change. I accept it.
When making the payment, I try to view the system. It is important to face the enemy. Eyes, mouth, teeth, something. With effort, I pick out of the fog the murky image of a kind of metallic scum or a grayish roller. The system crushes me with its portentous inconsistency.
The system is the perfect alibi for all kinds of abuses and scams, the great cover-up. I wonder if we, the users, couldn't start using it for our own benefit, sometime. Can't we use the trick too? You'll see – I would say, for example, to my bank – this month I'll pay less on my mortgage because the system has adjusted my rate, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm sorry - I can tell my boss tomorrow - I'd like to but I won't go to work today because the system has failed me, it won't let me. The system can do everything because it is a contemporary god, I tell myself. That night, in bed, I try to talk to him. System – I whisper kindly – couldn't you sometimes take our side? No, answers a voice without further explanation.
