12. Machine Input: I saved your life, and I didn’t even need a password

Our powerful senses. They’re complex and instantaneous—seeing, hearing, tasting, and so on—and taken for granted as the obvious and transparent ways for us to gather information. Rotten meat stinks. Sandpaper feels rough.

But when it comes to computers, we build them with a different information-gathering system. We use a methodology that fuels our bizarre relationship with them. We make them rely on user input.

It’s a path that’s forced misunderstandings and two-year-old tantrums. Perhaps user input is inspired from the breathtaking beauty of repetitious medical forms to be completed while we wait for a slow doctor, or those wonderful tax forms that ascertain how much money ...

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