The Luddites were right

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

My recent rant about mobile phones and privacy got me thinking about all the technology that infests our lives and how much of it is actually useful. Case in point, the electronic key fob that lets me into my house. These days, instead of inserting a key, which has been a perfectly acceptable method of entering buildings for… oooh… 4,000 years or so, I now have to stroke my front door with a peice of plastic to get in.

 Two points. Number one: every man gets lonely but I don’t like my front door that much. Number two: it doesn’t bloody work. Most nights I stumble home from the pub only to stand before my house waving my hands like an orchestra conductor and weeping with vexation because the damn thing refuses to open. Even if it did work, it has no advantages over a key. It’s no smaller, no faster, and it’s not like keys have ever being particularly difficult to use. Except for Bayon, of course, for whom a key is like carrying around a surfboard.

But, here’s the worry. Once you start doubting the technology in your life, it becomes very difficult to stop.

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