The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in cyberspace

from Disney's Fantasia, the "Sorcerer's Apprentice"

At the end of the summer, my sister and her partner were getting ready to leave on vacation to Michigan’s upper peninsula for camping and hiking. Before they left they wanted to make sure that those who emailed them would know that they were out of town and unable to get email, so they each created an automatic response on their email accounts. To be certain the system worked, they decided to send each other an email and, immediately, like the brooms in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, they were awash with thousands of emails generated between their two accounts as each response also generated new emails back and forth, perpetual ping pong.

Smacking the keyboard and laughing hysterically, they helplessly watched as cyberspace was geometrically piling up with what seemed to be an eternal and endless loop of responses generating more responses, which generated more responses, which generated more responses……”I’m out of town.” “No I’m out of town.” “No, I’M out of town.” “NO, I’M OUT OF TOWN…..”

My sister’s partner finally figured out to go into “Preferences” and turn off the automatic response and, like the good Sorcerer she is, all quieted down…. Ah, technology.