When I was in middle school I took a typing class. We were graded on both the speed and accuracy of our work. Late in the semester, I discovered that a rapid combination of keystrokes on my computer resulted in a typo on the screen. I was even able to recreate the issue for my teacher. The teacher’s response? A shoulder shrug.
What???
I hadn’t thought about it for years. Then I read this Guardian article:
Damian Owen, who was manager of a Post Office branch in Bangor, north Wales, was jailed for eight months after he was accused of stealing £25,000 as a result of computer errors. His conviction was quashed in 2021.
Owen was at times lost for words as he told the inquiry into the scandal about his time in prison.
“I lost an awful lot of weight,” Owen told the inquiry. “I did what I could to pass the time as quickly as I could.”
The Guardian
Owen was just one of more than 700 Post Office operators that were prosecuted between 2000 and 2014 (in the UK?) based on evidence from the IT system.
If this is true, this is a cautionary tale about our relationship with technology.