Technology: Servant or Master?

No, this isn’t a liberal column advocating that we all ride bicycles, use low-flow toilets, and “go green.” Instead, it is a conservative column warning that we must not let technology outpace our ability to control it. People controlled by technology are just as unfree as people controlled by bureaucrats. And if we are not careful, we will wind up being controlled by both.

Perhaps you recall the problems with Toyota and Lexus cars. There were multiple reports of unintended acceleration. Most were attributed to driver error − stepping on the accelerator instead of the brake. But a few were clearly something else.

For example, a 20-year veteran California Highway Patrol officer was driving his wife, daughter, and brother-in-law to the 13-year-old girl’s soccer practice. The car accelerated spontaneously. An eyewitness reported smoke coming from the wheels, indicating that the brakes were applied. The officer’s did safety inspections on heavy trucks, so it is difficult to believe he couldn’t tell the brake from the accelerator. He was trained in high-speed driving and was able to control the Lexus at 120 mph. But technology prevented him from stopping it, and all four were killed in a fiery crash.

Power brakes depend on vacuum assist, and at wide-open throttle, there is very little vacuum. So after a few applications, the brakes reverted to non-assisted and were unable to stop the speeding car. Even worse, the car had the new “on-off” button instead of the old reliable ignition switch. The driver may have pushed the button repeatedly, but the engine did not shut off. He did not know that if the car was moving, he had to hold the button down for three seconds, during which the car would travel over 500 feet. Rarely, the on-off button may fail to function, making the engine impossible to shut down.

Why did the driver not shift into neutral? Apparently an interlock prevented this to avoid inadvertent shifts while driving. Moreover, that model has an automatic shift pattern that tries to mimic a stick shift. The man was driving a loaner and may not have been familiar with either the on-off button or the gear shift.

The familiar ignition switch is user-friendly − turn right for on, left for off. A button used for both on and off is a user-unfriendly gadget looking for trouble. If I have to wait a few seconds for a forced shutdown of a computer, it’s no problem. If I have to wait a few seconds to shut down a runaway car, it’s a big problem.

I once had a stuck accelerator, and I was able to shut off the ignition switch, coast to a stop, and make temporary repairs. It was easy and instinctive, and did not require reading a lengthy owner’s manual that I might not recall in an emergency − and would never have seen in a rental car, as was the case in this fatal accident.

Cars should be designed by automotive engineers, not by makers of electronic toys. Basic functions like engine start-stop and shift pattern should be standard.

My car has one major design flaw − illegible instruments. The heating and cooling controls are a row of identical buttons, requiring me to take my eyes off the road to adjust them. My old car had a rotary knob to control the fan and a slider to control the temperature − which I could adjust by feel.

The climate-control readout is an LCD − dark gray on light gray − which like all LCDs is illegible in dim light. Even worse, the main instruments are deep blue at night. But during the day, they are dark gray on light gray. Unless sunlight is coming from behind me, I often cannot read the fuel and temperature gauges, or even the speedometer.

But, as the salesman was eager to point out, the instruments look sexy at night. I don’t know what good this does with bucket seats and a center console. I’m old enough to remember bench seats.

My wife is a clinical psychologist, so her e-mail sometimes contains crucial, time-sensitive material. Three days ago, her e-mail became inaccessible. This was true for both of our computers, so it was a server problem.

After at least 30 minutes on the phone with someone with an almost incomprehensible accent, my wife was still unable to access her e-mail. I then spent nearly an hour on the phone with another tech support “expert.” He did not succeed in accessing the mail, but he did succeed in disabling my web browser. I then spent another hour on the phone with Microsoft’s tech support expert − a real expert. He restored my web browser, and I was happy (well, willing) to pay the fee.

Of course, no one will pay for our wasted time, of which my wife spent even more in an ultimately successful effort to get her mail. This required her to drive about 10 miles across town to an office of the service provider, where she was fortunate to locate someone who spoke both English and computerese.

The food court in a local mall was upgraded to “go green.” The faucets, soap dispensers, toilets, and urinals were changed from manual to electric. How this is “green” is difficult to understand, but it is easy to understand that it puts millions of dollars into “green” companies. The problem is that these gizmos are unreliable. A few months after the mall reopened, two of the four faucets and one of the four soap dispensers in the men’s room were inoperable.

To make matters worse, paper towels were replaced by hot-air hand dryers. Perhaps if I had a degree in environmental studies, I could understand how using 1500 watts saves energy. Unlike the old hand dryers with nozzles, these have a narrow slot. It is almost impossible to insert one’s hands without touching the edges of the slot − which the previous user touched after wiping himself. That’s sanitary?

Recently the Minneapolis Airport was closed by a power failure. About 500 people were stranded overnight. But the rest rooms were “green,” so neither the water faucets nor the toilets worked. Here we cross the line from useless in normal times to potentially dangerous in an emergency − not a ringing endorsement.

Appliances such as washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers are our mechanical servants. But smart phones, computers, and their attendant paraphernalia can become our masters. What else do you call devices that demand hours of daily attention and care? But unlike pets, they return no love or companionship − only diversion.

Instruments that are sexy but illegible, rest rooms that are electrified but unreliable, and computer problems that are too complex for the average “expert” to fix − what do all these suggest? They suggest technology that changes too fast to be perfected. They suggest childlike people who need constant diversion and “change.” They suggest a civilization in decline. They suggest a nation making itself needlessly vulnerable to terrorism.

Ultimately − perhaps sooner than later − the lines will cross. The declining level of general education will cross the rising level of unnecessary complexity. We depend on “experts” in foreign countries − sometimes countries hostile to us − to build and repair our vital electronic devices. The Romans also depended on foreign workers. Like them, we will be left staring at the ruins of what we do not know how to repair, much less how to build, while the barbarians take over.

When facing technological problems, we should recall the words of Commander Montgomery Scott, chief engineer of the USS Enterprise: “The more they over-think the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.”

Dr. Stolinsky writes on political and social issues. Contact: dstol@prodigy.net.

Masters, according to the Obama AnointedIdiot talking doll given ATM machines are the demons of high unemployment.... =.=

Servant or Master? Both.

Here is a list of 76 questions to ask about any technology from Jacques Ellul, the foremost thinker on the subject of technology (IMHO) ever.

http://www.thewords.com/articles/ellul76quest.htm

Don’t be put off by the first section on “ecology” even those questions are not unreasonable, but the real meat of the list comes later.

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