White Noise

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

...In the morning I walked to the bank.  I went to the automated 
teller machine to check my balance.  I inserted my card, entered my 
secret code, tapped out my request.  The figure on the screen roughly 
corresponded to my independent estimate, feebly arrived at after long 
searches through documents, tormented arithmetic.  Waves of relief 
and gratitude flowed over me.  The system had blessed my life.  I 
felt its support and approval.  The system hardware, the mainframe 
sitting in a locked room in some distant city.  What a pleasant 
interaction.  I sensed that something of deep personal value, but not 
money, not that at all, had been authenticated and confirmed.  A 
deranged person was escorted from the bank by two armed guards.  The 
system was invisible, which made it all the more impressive, all the 
more disquieting to deal with.  But we were in accord, at least for 
now....

(Don DeLillo, _White Noise_ [1984], Chapter 10)
-- 
Yoshie

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