Touch Sensitive

The Intro

I was reading "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" and virtually the first thing that Marvin complains about is the touch-sensitive doors.

The music is "Touch Sensitive" by The Fall which has nothing to do with the story and is a great song that was also used for a car advert.

Every now and then my Google Pixel 4XL, when I press the screen app button, it just tells me what button I've pressed instead of taking the action I want.

This is particularly annoying when someone calls me and I press answer, and I get a message saying "You have pressed answer" so I press the button again and get the same message again and I miss the call. Sometimes this is for every button on my phone, I am not sure of the point and there is a solution for it but I can't find it on the web at the moment, and my phone is working.

Then I thought what if that happened on all these touch-sensitive smart devices we have, I also remember the conversation with the bomb in the film "Dark Star" and all this helped to inspire this story.

The Company

TSINCO are an electronics firm. They may touch sensitive devices for everything in modern society.

"YOu can touch or tell any TSINCO device what you want it to do and it will do it for you. In the house Switch on the lights, Lock the doors, Open the curtains, Turn the heating on, Run the Bath.

In Your Car "Take me to the supermarket, Pick Grandma Up, Take The Kids To School"

"TSINCO Defines Modern Life, Get Yours Now"

The Story

He always had the latest technology, money was no object. His home was fully touch-sensitive, controlled by TSINCO, actually, some of these things reacted to his voice as well. He could virtually live without moving if he wanted to be that lazy.

He went into the kitchen and the door slid shut behind him, he thought that was odd. He touched the pad to open it, and it opened but slammed shut when his finger left the pad.

Him: "Open Door"

TSINCO: "You said Open Door"

Him: "Open Door"

TSINCO: "You said Open Door"

He touched the pad again, and the door opened and shut as soon as his finger left the pad. He was feeling slightly threatened. He took a chair and put it against the door to jam it when he opened it again.

He touched the pad and pushed the chair to hold the door open, the door slammed again disintegrating the chair. He didn't have his phone with him, and he couldn't open the kitchen windows (he was on the tenth floor).

He decided to get water from the fridge dispenser, he filled the glass and told the dispenser to stop, but it didn't. He took a drink, at it didn't register, that the water was rising quickly.

He went to open the kitchen door again and pressed the pad but this time the door did not open.

Him: "Open Door"

TSINCO: "You said Open Door"

The door stayed closed, the water was rising, his SMART technology was going to drown him, and there was nothing he could do.

The minutes ticked, and the water hit the ceiling. Some of it drained through the sink but that had no effect on the overall situation.

The Outro

Breaking News:

"TSINCO Corporation products have been withdrawn following numerous deaths caused by home devices, vehicle failures that have caused car crashes, train crashes and aeroplane crashes. The TSINCO board have refused to make a statement apart from the users must be to blame because their devices are perfect"