Unintended Consequences

 

I was sent off on this particular trajectory by hearing the automated announcement at Woodbridge railway station.

"In wet weather platforms can be slippy"

Nothing wrong with that you say. Bear with me.

The problem of unintended Consequences is generally that something which is intended to be helpful turns out to cause harm in a way that the inventor or producer could not imagine. And sometimes the harms are slow to emerge.

When mass motoring developed in the 50s in the US and the 60s in the UK, everyone saw all the benefits: liberty, flexibility, satisfaction, status. But if you are stationary in an eight-lane traffic jam and your health has been negatively affected by your more sedentary life, did the promotors foresee that? Did they anticipate the social uncoupling of neighbourly relations that car-accessible housing developments produced?

So every time we have an idea for improving something, would it be possible to use our imaginations to try to foresee the unintended? Satnavs and Google Maps are quick and efficient, but I am sure they have reduced our abilities to 'read' the landscape and take in what is around us. Is this cost-free?

And ChatGPT and its ilk will save you scads of time in your studies, in your work, even in your private lives (Alexa, write me a "you're dumped" email with a positive tone). But was that saved time cost-free? Did we forget how to write, how to organise our thoughts, even how to be ourselves? Did the dumpee deserve something more genuine?

Now going back to the 'slippy' message at the station, what - you might say - could possibly be wrong with that one? What harm could it possibly do? 

I think there is a danger in trying to insulate us from all kinds of risk because in truth, I believe, we only properly learn by getting things wrong and, frankly, suffering some consequences. We learn about 'hot' (or maybe '****ing hot!') by accidentally touching the kettle or the firedogs or the ember. It is a sincere and lasting form of learning that signs don't give us. I believe children in school should use proper sharp-edged tools, not just because they work better but because you *can* cut yourself on them. And we need real experiences, not warnings, to develop the the instinctual learning that keeps you alive and thriving.

And when you look to improve our lives, please bear in mind that the outcome may improve one thing but only at the cost of another harm. This is not a war-cry for Luddites, it's rather an appeal to the imagination. 

Use your brain to try to anticipate the ways that your action or invention might work in the real world.