Duncan Bell is in A&E...

The harrowing experience of someone dear to me being in distress will haunt me forever.

I’m sorry,” said the man in the white coat. “There’s nothing we can do. It’s gone. It’s gone.”

Softly, the woman began to sob. Behind us, more wounded were wheeled in on trollies by uniformed staff, accompanied by men and women wearing pained expressions.

The woman in charge paced the room. Her face told of lack of sleep and dealing with too many traumatised people. “Have you done triage on these?” she asked her exhausted team.

Addressing the room, she barked, “We’ve got a wait of 2-3 hours before you’ll be seen, ladies and gentlemen.” Over and again, I heard the same question from the lips of the desperate: “The data. Can you save the data?”

Nurse, the screens!

Yeah, so, it wasn’t a hospital or a vet. It was a laptop and mobile repair centre. Yet I swear I haven’t made up or over dramatised any of the above, much.

If you ever had any doubts that we are now totally, hopelessly addicted to tech – and busily anthropomorphising it to the nth degree – take a visit to any large, walk-in repair facility.

Yes, the ‘patients’ being literally wheeled in were PCs. And people were more concerned about the contents of the devices than their physical form.