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Technology Fears

Recently I had a friend traveling who is not very tech savvy. This person has traveled before and has a routine, but in this case, they were struggling to get an airline's mobile app to work. They also struggled with the website, and just before the trip, they were thinking to cancel because they didn't have a ticket in their hand before driving to the airport.

This turned out to be a login issue, and between friends and the airline's customer service, they were able to print out a ticket at home and take it in hand to the airport.

It was slightly funny to me, but it got me thinking about the fears people have about technology. Many of these fears are really about change, but I would guess most of us have been burned by technology at some point. There's an app, a process, a system that fails and causes us stress/hassles/annoyances/money/etc.

Today I'm wondering if there is a technology are you afraid of or that you worry about more than average. Perhaps you have friends that worry about technology and have concerns. Drop a note in the comments, and I bet we'll have some funny discussions.

This summer, my wife and I took a ride in a Waymo in San Francisco. It was a neat experience, and I enjoyed it, but when my wife posted a video, we were amazed how many friends of ours were unwilling to consider riding in one. We are Tesla owners, and we've been impressed with FSD, but my wife is also unwilling to use the basic Autopilot most of the time because it's not reliable. Even FSD was something we were careful in using.

I live in the digital world often. I rarely use paper for anything, other than taking notes. Even then I often take pictures of notes and upload them for reference or for retyping. I pay for most things with digital money. I walk through life where technology manages supply chains, border admissions, airline flights, and almost everything I interact with. Even the vehicles I use at the ranch have lots of technology in them, though I admit I'm glad when something has analog parts I can work with.

I'm not sure there's much technology I'm afraid of, though I am wary of some connected devices. Not because of the tech, but because I don't think the vendors do a good job of security.

I can't really think of what technology worries me. Even AI is likely to be less dangerous/useful/amazing/whatever than people think. I think the one part of tech that worries me the most is how it affects society and many people whose jobs are threatened by tech. Though maybe I shouldn't worry. Those tech-averse people might be the reason we see growth in the travel agent world, which I thought was dead.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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