（外文电子版资料）Smith, Michael Marshall - More Tomorrow.doc

MORE TOMORROW PAGE PAGE 13 MORE TOMORROW by Michael Marshall Smith I got a new job a couple of weeks ago. It’s pretty much the same as my old job, but at a much nicer company. What I do is trouble-shoot computers and their software, and yes, I know that sounds dull. People tell me so all the time. Not in words, exactly, but in their glassy smiles and their awkward ‘let’s be nice to the drone’ demeanour. It’s a strange phenomenon, really, the whole ‘computer people are losers’ mentality. All around the world, in every office in every building, people are using computers day in, day out. Every now and then, these machines go wrong. They’re bound to: they’re complex systems, like a human body, or society. When someone gets hurt, you call in a doctor. When a riot breaks out, it’s the police that – for once – you want to see on your doorstep. Similarly, if your word processor starts dumping files or your hard disk goes non-linear, it’s someone like me you need. Someone who actually understands the box of magic which sits on your desk, and can make it all lovely again. But do we get any thanks, any kudos for being the emergency services of the late twentieth century? Do we fuck. I can understand it to a degree. There are enough nerds and geeks around to make it seem like a losing way of life. But there are plenty of pretty random earthlings doing all the other jobs too, and no one expects them to turn up for work in a pin-wheel hat and a T-shirt saying ‘Programmers do it recursively’. For the record, I play reasonable blues guitar, I’ve been out with a girl and have worked undercover for the CIA. The last bit isn’t true, of course, but you get the general idea. Up until recently I worked for a computer company, which was full of very perfunctory human beings. When people started passing around jokes which were written in C++, I decided it was time to go. One of the other advantages of knowing about computers is that unemployment isn’t going to be a pr