A long time ago in a world barely recognizable to our own, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe coined the phrase, “The Devil is in the details.” This was almost certainly a play off of the then oft-used ‘God is in the details’ but Mies Van Der Rohe was snarky and snark sticks. Snark is also real. When we speak of the singularity we often talk about intelligent machines whose learning curve grows exponentially to the point of becoming a straight line. This seems possible if you listen to Kurzweil or follow the initial trajectory and understanding of Moore’s Law. What neither of these incredible intellects took into account was the basic stupidity that lives at the intersection of code and commerce.
I am an AT&T customer. I am a Direct TV customer. For a long time the companies asked me to merge my service bill into one thing. I eventually relented and opted for a single bill to make life easier on everyone. I was wrong about that. It made life hell on billing.
My DTV bill is a paper thing that arrives periodically. I do not get a monthly bill. I get a bill when DTV decides that they need to remind me to pay. See, I was on auto billing and electronic billing, but then I merged bills and my DTV bill fell into a limitless void that allowed the company’s digital arm to largely deny my existence. What do I mean? Well, I cannot login to the DTV website anymore because it directs me to the ATT website. That website apparently has no idea that I am a DTV customer (my occasional bill and multiple receivers that still get regular service argue otherwise). Onwards the digital hot potato bounces. In short, I know I get DTV but nobody else is entirely sure about that reality until they really want my money. Then I have to call them, sift through this nonsense repeatedly in order to pay.
It is not a pleasant experience. It is also not an anomalous one. The merging of corporate entities and protocols is always a headache thanks to machine architecture and social architecture between corps. This argues that our tech singularity is going to be hampered by continuing developments in the financial world and that chaos appears to be the only constant in an ever changing digital landscape. Well, there is a second constant. When they want you to pay, they will find you.