Extraterrestrial Pretexting

Slept a little fitfully last night. Woke this morning out of a dream in which (mostly) benevolent and unbelievably powerful aliens arrive on Earth and do little things like reroute rivers, create playgrounds where there were none before, and give everyone on the planet an iPhone. Most of their astounding feats happen during the night: a mysterious bank of fog rolls in, and in the morning, it dissipates, leaving… a field of wheat! A playground! A rushing waterway where there was none the day before!

Occasionally, the aliens would ask a human being for help, which was considered a real honor. The way they’d get in touch with you? Calling your iPhone, of course. When their distinctive caller-ID showed on the screen, whoever got the call would be terrifically excited.

As the dream was winding down, I got a call with the aliens’ caller-ID on it, answered the call, and found a market researcher for Amazon.com on the line, wanting to ask me how I felt about a series of special sales Amazon had recently run. When I complained to the woman that pretexting via caller-ID as the alien mothership might be a little unethical, she brushed off my concerns. I asked to speak with her manager to complain, and woke up.

I have no clue what this one’s about.