I bought a place back in September and had just this week gotten things mostly settled. Then today some people knocked on my door. I opened, and there were 3 men, 2 women and baby. It sounded like the makings of some kind of movie sequel, but not the kind I wanted to be in the center of.

They said they had called earlier and wanted to see the place.

Well that’s interesting, I thought. For one, I'm under the age of 30 and so have never had an actual land line telephone for someone to call me on. For another, this must be the sign of a wet wear malfunction since I had no recollection of putting the place up for sale.

They showed me the sheet which had my address and picture of the place on it. I silently noted how the "asking price" was $15,000 more than what I paid. I informed them I had no interest in this many roommates and that they try some of the other places down the street.

I went back to my room and hopped on the source of all true information: the Internet. But it failed, or at least lied, since Realtor.com and Zillow.com both show the place as sold at the price I paid.

But the question still picks at my brain. What database hasn’t been notified that the house has sold? And what program (or person) increased the listing price?

I think a human error is more likely than a computer bug in this case, but the consequences of a computer bug would have had the same effect: people showing up at my door wondering why there was still furniture in the place. A software error manifesting itself in the physical world, now that’s a creepy thought.

Which is why I’m very glad I don’t work in any kind of mapping software, where that mistake in code makes the computer call out “turn left” and suddenly you’re not in Kansas anymore. We don’t need walking metal later to be governors with machine guns from the future to kill us all, just write a virus that invades MapQuest and let people do themselves in.

Oh, and who the hell did they talk to?