Our lives are increasingly tracked and monitored by software. In this brave new world, humans can’t cope with information overload. Governments and companies rely on computers to automatically detect fraud, predict behaviour and enforce laws. Inflexible automatons, barely smarter than a fridge, now make life-changing decisions. Computers are determined to follow instructions to the letter – but the instructions are human, and flawed! The results can be unexpected, catastrophic, and very, very funny.
Humans vs Computers is a book about ordinary people caught between wrong assumptions and computer bugs. Some of the hilarious examples include humans who are invisible to computers, how a default password once caused a zombie apocalypse, and why airlines sometimes give away free tickets. This is also a book on how to prevent, avoid and reduce the impact of such problems.
From the man whose new personalised number plate brought him 2,000 parking fines a month to the prisoner released 3 years early by an automated parole review, these cautionary tales will make you laugh till you cry.
When you’re banging your head against a digital wall, the stories in this book will help you understand better what’s going on and show you where to look for problems.
For people involved in software delivery, this book will help you find more empathy for the people suffering from your mistakes, and discover heuristics to use during analysis, development or testing to make your software less error prone.
