Apt142’s Blog

People are highly amusing to me. I include myself in that detached observation.

One of the things that amuses me is our ability to assume false conceptions about our environment. Or even to be completely and willingly ignorant of our environment. Our environment has become so safe and self regulating that we forget to think about the things that we would normally have to do to keep ourselves safe.

Let’s take for instance a very low tech example. There is a mall close to where I live that has 2 stories. The upper story has walkways with glass railings. The railings are there to prevent a person from walking, tripping, falling off the edge and into the bottom floor. People have become so used to these that the height from the top floor to the bottom floor ceases to be a possible danger and becomes a aesthetic aspect of the experience.

I happen to find these railings as possible danger sources. Why? I’m not worried that they’ll break off or become loose. Though, that is a possibility. I find them dangerous because I’m a tall person. My center of balance is higher than the railings are. So, if were to stumble into one, I would just flop over the top and take an epic stage dive. Is this likely to happen? Probably not. But, I’m aware that the danger is there.

It’s important that people remember the danger of things even if they are in a low likelihood of danger. Why? Am I proposing fear mongering and worry? No, not really, I’m proposing education of consequence and the appreciation of circumstances. If a person is aware of a danger then they have the ability to make assessments on whether or not the safety mechanism in place are in good working order (or even exist). Also, they can behave in such a way that the safety mechanism isn’t the only method of safety.

My technological example would be spam. We all get it in some quantity or another. And it’s a clear problem with possibly damaging results. Thousands upon thousands of these emails go out trying to solicit us internet users to buy things or fall for some of their schemes. It clogs up our systems and wastes our time. The amount of money spent of spam filtering per year is a staggering amount. And the spam must work because instead of diminishing, spam is only increasing.

But, how many of us think about the spam filtering that goes on? I know what some of you are thinking out there…. How can people be so stupid as to click on this crap? I can tell you from experience that there is a percentage of the population that are suckers for this stuff.

Most people recognize it for what it is. What most people don’t recognize is how big a problem it really is. When individuals at my workplace get more than 2 or 3 a day they voice a complaint that spam is bad. What they have no idea of is, just how many emails didn’t make it to their inboxes.

There is a joke in IT that we should just turn off the filter one day and let people experience just how bad the problem is. Because until they do, they’d have no appreciation for the safe guards in place and therefore do not do any other measures on their own to enhance their safety.

A similar but drastically more serious case is that of the Titanic. It was engineered to be “unsinkable.” Because of this perception that is was safe, measures were limited for the people on board to save themselves. It was equipped with less life boats than necessary… The ship was navigated recklessly… Safety was not appreciated because the illusion and reality of danger was obscured.

Sometimes the best appreciation comes from when the problem occurs. Once it occurs then it becomes obvious that it is indeed a problem to even the laymen. In cases where the effects will be negative but not harmful to a person’s health or awareness, then it might be a good idea to allow or encourage a problem in a controlled way.

In some fields this is even practiced. Military and police personnel are often subjected to pepper spray so that they can experience the pain first hand. This gives them an understanding of the danger of pepper spray.

But, why can’t this be applied to other areas? Letting all spam go free for one day would certainly drive home the point to the population just how bad of a problem it is.

It’s something I think about anyways.