Bi -Monthly, I write a short story for the Assist Virtual Support Solutions Newsletter called “Your New Life in France” about internet related information or related to my line of work.
I was stuck for a topic until I found this fantastic story, a French “David vs. Goliath” internet tale. A few years ago, the French tax authority started using Google Earth to find undeclared swimming pools. The program was a huge success,uncovering thousands of pools and collecting millions in back taxes.
The Protest: A Flood of Faux Pools
In protest, the internet hatched a hilarious plan. People downloaded an image of a white rectangle, a JPEG designed to look like a pool from space, printed it, and laid it on their lawns. The goal was to flood the system with false reports. The authorities had to respond. With impeccable seriousness, an official announced on the news:
“We are able to tell the difference between a swimming pool and a piece of plastic sheeting laid on the ground.”
It was the ultimate standoff: online satire vs. French bureaucracy. It proved that while you can tax a pool, you can’t tax a perfect joke. This is a key rule in tech: no matter how advanced a system is, be it satellites or modern AI, it’s still vulnerable to human creativity.
Back then, human auditors had to dismiss those JPEGs. Today, AI still struggles with context and humor.
The same is true for building a WordPress site or any digital tool: you can have powerful technology, but you must always account for the unpredictable ways people will use it. Humans build the systems, and will always find a way to surprise them. That’s the one variable you can never code for.
