Paolo was a plumber.

People knew him as a reliable and thorough craftsman. He fixed the pipes in his small town and made a good living doing so.

One day, his friend Mario told him that he’d bought a plumbing machine. Paolo was intrigued and asked how it worked.

“It’s magical!” said Mario. “I show it what’s broken, and it fixes the problem in no time!” Paolo asked if he could watch the machine work.

The next day, Paolo and Mario took the machine to a house with a broken pipe. Paolo watched as Mario positioned the machine by the pipe. “Beep boop,” and the machine started working, and quickly. Paolo noticed the machine turned the wrench back and forth instead of steady pressure - something he could adapt for his own work. Within minutes, the pipe was fixed.

“Soon no one will need plumbers anymore,” said Mario. “I can already do the work of ten plumbers with this machine!”

That night, Paolo couldn’t sleep. He thought about his job and how it might change. He loved being a plumber and helping people. But what if machines really took over?

Within a few weeks, Paolo’s phone stopped ringing. People were calling Mario instead because he did quicker, cheaper work. Some of Paolo’s old customers told him he was “old-fashioned” and “out of touch.”

In the past, none of his customers had ever complained about his work. He always took time to do things right. He would check every joint, seal every pipe, and make sure everything was perfect before leaving. Sometimes he noticed other problems that needed fixing and he would offer to fix those too.

Then one day, he got a call from an old customer. It was an emergency. The pipes in the restaurant were leaking and they needed help fast. Paolo rushed over and found a mess. He got to work and fixed the problem.

“We just got it fixed the other day!” When Paolo asked who did the work, the owner said it was Mario.

From that day on, more people called Paolo. They all had problems after working with Mario and the machine. Paolo kept finding the same mistakes: pipes not properly sealed, joints not aligned correctly, leaks temporarily fixed with instant glue. Sometimes the machine would add extra parts: pipes that ended nowhere, valves that didn’t connect to anything. Paolo recognized these as signs of the machine at work.

Paolo called Mario and told him what he’d found. Mario knew about the issues: “I told it to fix it, but it didn’t work right. Even when I asked multiple times and was very polite.” And worse: “One time I looked away for a moment and the machine started remodeling the bathroom! It added a new sink that wasn’t there before.”

Paolo asked why he didn’t just fix it himself. “I can’t,” Mario said. “I don’t know how to do it without the machine.”

Mario had been a reputable plumber before he got the machine. Now he was relying on a machine that didn’t always work. Worse, Mario didn’t own the machine but rented it from a company far away. The rent was cheap in the beginning, but now it was getting more expensive.

Paolo realized that Mario wasn’t the only one. Many plumbers were using machines now, and new plumbers were learning machines instead of tools. It wasn’t just plumbers—electricians, carpenters, other tradespeople were all relying on machines. The machines caused problems, but the company promised they would fix everything and get better with time. They kept updating the machines and gave them fancy names, but the problems remained.

Paolo just kept working. He fixed what the machines broke. His customers called him back for more work. Soon his phone was ringing like before.

A while later, a salesperson came to town with a new machine. Paolo heard Mario talking to him at the coffee shop.