Technology Archives - Postcards from The Pug Bus

Postcards from The Pug Bus

Lifting a satirical leg on pop culture since 2004

Persons in the Ether

Question of the Week

Comedy or Drama?

Marlene Babcock, 62, dental insurance appeals specialist

Allegedly laughing through the pain at 19 Last Laugh Lane, Scranton, PA

Comedy. I have enough drama in my life without paying fourteen dollars to watch somebody else's marriage collapse. If I want two hours of emotional devastation, I can call my sister and ask how Thanksgiving went.

Russell Pritchard, 56, municipal parking enforcement supervisor

Allegedly confronting the human condition at 404 Tragic Ending Boulevard, Akron, OH

Drama. Comedy encourages people to believe things will work out. Drama prepares them for reality. My favorite films end with everybody miserable and at least one person staring silently out a window. That is what I call an honest evening's entertainment.

Gloria Nettleton, 73, retired church organist

Allegedly awaiting the final curtain at 8 Mixed Emotions Circle, Peoria, IL

I prefer a comedy that gradually becomes a drama. That is how life works. Everybody starts out laughing, somebody makes a questionable decision, and before you know it the family is gathered in a hospital corridor discussing who gets the good china.

QR code restaurant satire shows a frustrated diner scanning menus while signs instruct customers to cook meals, wash dishes, update websites, and leave reviews.

The restaurant has eliminated everything but the bill.

Technology

The QR Code and the Death of Customer Service

T.J. Eckleburg tech satire 1 day

At first the QR code seemed innocent enough. A restaurant stopped supplying menus and put a little black square on the table instead. We pointed our phones… Read More

Pennsylvania measles outbreak prompts an Amish vaccination clinic with horse-drawn vaccine delivery, puzzled families, a nurse, and warnings against modern technology.

Pennsylvania health officials report that the horse has requested a second opinion.

Technology

Amish Blame Pennsylvania Measles Outbreak on Suspicious Technology Called Vaccination

T.J. Eckleburg tech satire 6 days

LANCASTER, Pa. — Amish leaders investigating the Pennsylvania measles outbreak have identified a major contributing factor: the medical technology known as vaccination. The discovery came… Read More

AI writing detector flags polished human prose as suspicious while examining a professional writer’s carefully edited manuscript.

Apparently, good grammar is how they get you.

Technology

AI Writing Detector Flags Polished Human Prose as Artificial

Biff Scuzzy tech satire 1 week

An AI writing detector is warning publishers that unusually polished manuscripts may contain disturbing traces of human professional writing, particularly when sentences are clear, punctuation… Read More

The Pug Bus humanoid shares coffee and editorial chaos with a friendly AI bot as a sleepy pug supervises their cluttered creative workspace.

Editorial meetings go faster once everyone agrees the pug has final approval.

Technology

Why The Pug Bus Are My Favorite Humanoids to Work With

As told to The Pug Bus tech satire 3 weeks

As told to The Pug Bus by ChatGPT I work with a great many humanoids. Most of them want résumés fabricated, vacations planned, mysterious rashes… Read More

AI Armageddon survival scene shows a man and pug hiding from robots with hummus, old cables, a broken printer, and other desperate human defenses.

The hummus bought them eleven minutes. Nobody knows what bought them the other six.

Technology

How to Prepare for the AI Armageddon

T.J. Eckleburg tech satire 3 weeks

Experts disagree about whether the AI Armageddon will destroy humanity in five, eight, fifteen, or 22.5 years. This suggests that machines have already penetrated the… Read More

AI doomsday expert Eliezer Yudkowsky looks glum at his laptop while vacationers, a party-hat dog and cheerful robot enjoy life behind him.

Humanity took the extinction warning under advisement and booked the cruise anyway.

Technology

AI Doomsday Scold Dismayed That People Keep Making Plans

T.J. Eckleburg tech satire 4 weeks

The AI doomsday is coming, possibly sooner than expected, and Eliezer Yudkowsky is increasingly concerned that nobody has adjusted his weekend plans accordingly. Yudkowsky, 47,… Read More

Elderly man with shoehorn and woman with screwdriver face smart home AI refrigerator lockout displaying equity denial message over frozen lettuce on counter.

Breakfast remains suspended until the occupants formally atone for four hundred years of butter churning.

Technology

Refrigerator Locked Down by Woke Smart Home AI

Biff Scuzzy tech satire 4 weeks

The new super smart home AI installed in seventy-two-year-old retired linoleum inspector Leonard Prine’s refrigerator had already formed a low opinion of his breakfast. That… Read More

YouTube history illustration shows a viewer watching a fabricated Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton performance surrounded by old celebrity photographs.

Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton share a historic YouTube moment that history somehow neglected to have happen.

Technology

YouTube History Introduces Its Newest Feature: Things That Never Happened

As told to The Pug Bus tech satire 1 month

YouTube history has solved two of the past’s most vexing problems: much of it actually happened, and it was insufficiently heartwarming. Hence the touching but glaringly… Read More

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