I would have read this book if only for the intriguing title and the wicked cool photo on the cover. (Another good one to carry around!) I bet Tenner being the author didn't hurt the sales of it either.
I thought this book was going to cover things like how we have this sh-tload of software on the computers in our offices, but no one who knows how to use it to the full capacity programmed
into it.
But Tenner addresses other "advancements" that have turned around and attacked us:
• football padding that has made the game much more dangerous
• ATMs with people lined up to use them while four tellers stand idle
• breakthroughs in antibiotics that create resistant strains of the bacteria we're battling
• military body armor that drastically reduces mortal combat wounds, only to leave soldiers without any limbs, or with severe head wounds they never recover from
• the "paperless office" with recycling bins overflowing and substantial orders of file folders and labels never abating
Ha, that last one reminds me of something I noticed in an office once. We were always going on about turning it into a paperless operation and I thought, Could we start, maybe, by teaching everyone how to suppress the blank page at the end of a document? There must be a million blank pages "printed" and routinely dumped in recycling every day in US businesses. Easily—yet never—addressed.
There is a grave unintended consequence this book can have: It can make one paranoid and even fatalistic.
First, one begins to appreciate the reality and gravity of unintended consequences.
Then one realizes that unintended consequences are a necessary by-product of everything we do.
Then one frets over what good or bad unintended consequences might arise out of our decisions. Or won't arise because we didn't make the decision or made the wrong one or...
Then one curls up on the floor in the dark and wishes it all were over.
But maybe that's just me.
into it.
But Tenner addresses other "advancements" that have turned around and attacked us:
• football padding that has made the game much more dangerous
• ATMs with people lined up to use them while four tellers stand idle
• breakthroughs in antibiotics that create resistant strains of the bacteria we're battling
• military body armor that drastically reduces mortal combat wounds, only to leave soldiers without any limbs, or with severe head wounds they never recover from
• the "paperless office" with recycling bins overflowing and substantial orders of file folders and labels never abating
Ha, that last one reminds me of something I noticed in an office once. We were always going on about turning it into a paperless operation and I thought, Could we start, maybe, by teaching everyone how to suppress the blank page at the end of a document? There must be a million blank pages "printed" and routinely dumped in recycling every day in US businesses. Easily—yet never—addressed.
There is a grave unintended consequence this book can have: It can make one paranoid and even fatalistic.
First, one begins to appreciate the reality and gravity of unintended consequences.
Then one realizes that unintended consequences are a necessary by-product of everything we do.Then one frets over what good or bad unintended consequences might arise out of our decisions. Or won't arise because we didn't make the decision or made the wrong one or...
Then one curls up on the floor in the dark and wishes it all were over.
But maybe that's just me.
This point leapt out at me:
ReplyDelete"military body armor that drastically reduces mortal combat wounds, only to leave soldiers without any limbs, or with severe head wounds they never recover from"
I haven't read the book, so I don't know what Tenner's point is, but it sounds a bit like "'tis better to die than be permanently disabled". I may have to read the book and find out. The rest of the book sounds interesting, too.
Error of omission on my part.
DeleteThe point is that there was not adequate preparation to deal with soldiers in the numbers and to the severity that they were wounded.
I'm sure you know I take your point, but I misrepresented Tenner's.