Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. Steve Jobs
“I’m not accusing you, but…” a young boy stood on our front step Tuesday evening showing me his phone which showed his missing earbuds were at our address. On the screen in big black letters, was our address.
The earbuds were taken out of his backpack at school, he said, but it isn’t one of our local schools. No one in our area goes to his school. No one in our house is of school age, but there on his phone is our address. He and his father leave, and we are left with a mystery. Why is our address on his phone the location of his missing earbuds?
Last night his mother showed up. We go through the same information, but now the earbud tracker is dead and the last known location on the phone is our address at three o’clock pm on Tuesday.
Evidence like this could get someone in real trouble. What if the item missing was more valuable than a pair of earbuds? What if the police were called? What if the earbud tracker quit working at the precise time it went past our house in a vehicle, and that is why it shows our address? There is an explanation and I believe both of our stories are true, those earbuds must have been by our house at 3:00 pm on Tuesday to register our address, and we don’t have anything to do with the missing earbuds.
If a tracker in a vehicle registers as being at an address when it is in a vehicle traveling on a road there are all kinds of ways this can point fingers at innocent people, and the accusers might not always be willing to believe what they are seeking is not at said address.
Technology always has unforeseen consequences, and it is not always clear, at the beginning, who or what will win, and who or what will lose. Neil Postman
Situations get out of control over seemingly benign things, tempers get heated, things get said, and actions get taken because people with an address on their phone don’t believe what they are seeking isn’t at the address their device says it is. What if a missing child’s tracker showed their last known location as our address because the vehicle whisking them away drove past our house?
Technology is wonderful and knowing we can locate missing items might make us feel good until we are on a stranger’s doorstep saying, “I’m not accusing you, but…” As we’ve seen in the news, showing up at the wrong stranger’s house can have dire consequences.
Tracking devices can and are used in nefarious ways, and seemingly innocent things can have devastating consequences. As a society are we equipped to deal with what our technology brings, both the good and the bad?
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. Milton Friedman
The law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history. Niall Ferguson
Fear makes come true that which one is afraid of. Viktor E. Frankl
Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
