Alfred rang the doorbell to nr. 13341, mr. Whitsomes house. Mr Whitsome opened the door. He had been expecting a repairman, and a smile of recognition appeared on his face. "Hello, there you are", he welcomed.
The smile and the recognition was not reciprocated. "My name is Alfred, I am here to check your domestic processing unit", responded Alfred. Mr Whitsomes smile broadened. "Yes, of course, come inside" he said.
Alfred went inside. He took a quick tour of the house, checking all the panels to the computer serving this residence. Finding nothing wrong with the outlets, he took control of the central one and plugged himself in.
Alfred had never been aware of his flaw himself, and since he was programmed with a most confident attitude and given a great deal of authority, others hadn't had a chance to realize it either. Also, the anomaly rarely resulted in any disasters. But this day, at Mr Whitsomes house, a strange thing happened. The chronometer was slightly off (2 nanoseconds, to be exact), and Alfred had to do the very arithmetic operation that caused him to miscalculate while checking the chronometer. So instead of adjusting mr Whitsomes chronometer, Alfred sent a message to the company's central processing unit to make it adjust itself to mr Whitsomes chronometer. Because of Alfred's serious flaw, the information that was sent to the company computer contained a strange mix of instructions. The company that owned Alfred at this point was the largest information management company in the region, so this mishap had widespread consequences: An errant diplomatic message caused a minor war in a nearby starcluster; a modified invoice resulted in a massive delivery of hair growth treatments to another planet; and the President had two shots in his espresso the next morning, instead of one, as was his custom.