I was out to eat recently and when the bill came I got out my phone to calculate the tip.
Now, I can do the math to figure the tip, but if it have a computer with me – and computers are math incarnate – why not have the computer figure the tip?
I put in the amount of the bill – the last digit was a 5 – and entered in the percent for the tip (18%, the service was quite good). The amount to tip came up – the last digit was a 0 – and then the calculator gave me the total of the bill plus the tip amount. And the last digit was a 4.
I started to write this on a bill – but the numbers jumped out at me. In what universe can you add 5 and 0 together and come up with 4?
I gave it a little thought and realized that when the calculator figured up the percentage, it kept track of more decimals than it displayed. And it rounded one way in the display of the amount – and rounded the other way when it did the total.
It was off by a penny.
I fixed this on the bill, signed it, and then went on my way.
Got me wondering, though, how many times this has happened before? And to how many people that use that same app?
It only caught my eye because the error was so glaring and I felt a little smug that the computer couldn’t do math.
Though, really, I should have noticed this kind of error long before now.
More troubling, I think, is that the computer in my phone did the math correctly – but instead displayed the wrong number.
I think…
I think it lied to me. And has been lying to me all along.
I keep warning people that the robot uprising is coming and I had visions of hulking machines with death rays – but apparently it’s waaaay more subtle than that.
Humanity is screwed.
At least the sandwich was good.