It's a running theme in some of John Scalzi's short fiction. I believe several can be found searching his blog, but the easiest place to find them are probably

It's a running theme in some of John Scalzi's short fiction. I believe several can be found searching his blog, but the easiest place to find them are probably his collections. A couple were adapted as shorts in the anthology animated series "Love, Death, and Robots" (Netflix Original) most notably the Emmy-winning short "Automated Customer Service".