Unexpected Item in Bagging Area: A Modern Comedy of Errors

How I Lost a Philosophical Argument with a Robot Over the World's Most Obvious Fruit

My grocery store's self-checkout machine.

This thing looked me dead in the eye and said "unexpected item in bagging area" about a single banana.

A BANANA, people. 🍌

Not a complex geometric shape. Not some mysterious alien artifact. A banana. The most banana-shaped thing in the entire universe.

So naturally, I spent 10 minutes having a philosophical debate with a robot about whether my banana was, in fact, a banana. 🤔

Plot twist: The machine won. 🤖 I had to call for human backup to verify that yes, this yellow curved thing was indeed the fruit I claimed it to be.

This is where we are as a society. I need a person to confirm to a computer that I know what a banana is. 😤

Meanwhile, in other news: I'm still out here interviewing fascinating humans on my podcast because apparently I'm better at talking to actual people than I am at convincing machines that produce exists.

Who knew?

Random question for the humans in my feed: What's the most ridiculous argument you've ever had with an inanimate object? 🤷‍♀️ Because I'm starting to think we all need therapy... or better technology. Maybe both.

P.S. - If you're a self-checkout machine reading this, we need to talk. You know how to reach me. Let's work this out like adults. 🤝

Save your money for the robot overthrow if you want – but at least stick around for the free content. I promise to keep documenting humanity's slow descent into technological madness, one grocery store encounter at a time. 🤖