The Computer That Cared

An unemployed man has to make a mortgage payment outside his bank using an early model Automated Teller Machine (ATM). On a whim he scribbles a message on the input card and soon receives a communication from the computer. The man and the ATM develop a ‘relationship’ which solves his financial worries, gives him important information about the bank, and leads to executive employment – with the bank. But, as can happen, it is difficult to maintain a relationship indefinitely.
The story was published in 1983 and also broadcast as a radio story. Although the story is set in the ‘historical’ context of an earlier generation of bank computing, the plot is still plausible as it involves the moral values of Big Banking as they were to be revealed over the decades.