Giles Fraser - scything through an awful muddle from Kew Vicar on technology

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Welcome to the Second Thought Podcast, which
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today was provoked by a broadcast on the 30th
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of April 2025 by one Giles Fraser, a West London
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vicar. By way of recap, Second Thought is the
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self -appointed accuracy police of Thought for
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the Day broadcasts on Radio 4. These are each
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three minutes of a religious person, and each
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example purports to be reflections from a religious
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perspective on events and people in the news.
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It's my view that these broadcasts are riddled
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with errors of fact and of reason that should
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not be tolerated by the BBC. Indeed, it's my
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view these broadcasts, or at least a majority
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of them, run afoul of the BBC's own editorial
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standards which demand due accuracy. We also
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find preparing and recording these a tremendous
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amount of fun. In each podcast I attempt to include
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as much of the original broadcast as necessary
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for the criticism of it to make sense. There
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was very little of the broadcast from Vicar Giles
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that did not contain errors of fact or reason,
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so most of it you can hear in what follows. However,
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I... Edit this and it's not always the entire
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thing, so please visit the Thought for the Day
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website at the BBC to listen to the original,
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or you can link to it from secondthoughtfortheday
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.com. We'd not want you harbouring any suspicions
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that we were in any way joining the efforts of
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these godly brothers and sisters as they seek
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to pull wool over eyes. Here's what the Reverend
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Fraser said on the 30th of April. It was the
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biggest power cut in recent memory. All across
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Spain and Portugal, the lights went out, people
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were stuck in lifts and on trains, internet and
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mobile phone coverage went down, businesses suffered.
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It wasn't quite mass panic, but it was near enough.
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Isn't it extraordinary how our society has become
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so thoroughly dependent upon something that,
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little more than a century ago, most people had
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never even heard of? Well, Giles, where to begin?
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How about with a parallel tale of technological
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breakdown in London in 1852, 273 years ago. Now,
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for context, Queen Victoria was about a third
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into her 63 -year reign. Huge wealth was flowing
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into London from the British Empire. Great Ormond
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Street Hospital, Britain's first children's hospital,
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just opened, as had King's Cross Station, which
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instantly became the biggest railway station
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in Europe. And of oblique reference, a patent
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for the flush toilet was granted that year. The
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city of London was growing, and it had a water
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supply system built on centuries of innovation
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and expansion, and it was working hard to keep
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pace. 1852 saw the introduction of a new and
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highly effective filtration system that markedly
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improved the quality of water delivered to Londoners.
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But then, thanks to the diligent detective work
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of one Dr John Snow, A deadly cholera outbreak
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was linked to a water pump in Soho. How could
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it be? With all this technology and a new filtration
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system, a seemingly simple fault resulted in
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contamination for a whole neighbourhood. No doubt,
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West London vicars had letters published in the
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newspapers sounding caution over these technological
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advances. All the promise of clean, high -quality
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drinking water and it comes crashing down following
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a single fault. Where to get water now? How did
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the city become so overwhelmingly dependent on
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this vulnerable pump network for something as
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important as its water? Except no, I very much
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suspect they did not. The cholera problem was
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identified and the contamination was addressed.
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Within a decade, London's water treatment and
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distribution system was complemented by the most
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advanced sewerage network. the world had ever
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seen. This progression of sanitation technology
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improved the quality of life for thousands of
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Londoners, likely also preventing the deaths
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of thousands more. The benefits of the advances
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made in the 19th century were very often both
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vast and visceral. Many more people lost their
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lives in 1852 London as a result of the contaminated
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pump than did as a result of the Iberian power
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outage. But the scale of that power delivery
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network on the Iberian Peninsula would have been
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near impossible for the average 1852 resident
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of Soho to comprehend, covering almost 600 ,000
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square kilometres, including hundreds of power
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stations and millions of homes and businesses.
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And because of that scale, millions more were
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affected in much more trivial ways by the power
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cut than the cholera. Now, the outage was huge.
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And an unusual failure for Western Europe. It's
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not so unusual to hear of the largest cities
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in Venezuela, South Africa or India to suffer
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intermittent blackouts. And variously, these
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are always attributed to ageing infrastructure,
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supply constraints and underinvestment. But in
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fairness, the first two clearly are just euphemisms
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for the third. Spain and Portugal, though? Not
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so much. It was a reminder of our vulnerability.
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Now, much more is known today than at the time
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about the causes. It'll be in 2026 that the official
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investigation will report, and this will have
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valuable information in it for power grids the
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world over, for the enhancement of resilience,
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the importance of preparedness, and the importance
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of trusting good people to maintain cool heads
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under pressure. It took 10 hours to fix the power
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cut. It was massively inconvenient for the millions
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affected. But that was dwarfed. by the impact
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on the family and friends of the six people who
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died. For comparison, it took 15 days to remedy
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the cholera outbreak. 616 people died. And even
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at that point, it was a natural flight of the
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population away from the affected area that stifled
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transmission, not the intervention of any authority.
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The pump itself wasn't disabled until days later.
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This was because the technology of the time had
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yet to confirm the germ theory of disease. Disabling
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a water pump when cholera was thought to be caught
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from miasma or bad air was not straightforward
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in 1852 London. Because of technological advances
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we've made, today we have reliable, clean drinking
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water from every tap in every house. We heat
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our homes in winter without life -shortening
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consequences of breathing wood smoke or the city's
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strangling consequences of billowing smoke from
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a chimney on every rooftop. Each year we manage
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to do this with less contribution to the causes
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of global warming. We have astonishingly capable
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hospitals with emergency backup systems, all
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of which are the results of millions of aggregated
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advances in technology since 1851 and before.
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By way of example, in 1885 we developed the first
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ever cholera vaccine, pertinently enough for
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this story, by a Spanish doctor called Juan Meferrani
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Oclua. The antibiotic. Doxycycline was discovered
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by Pfizer scientists in the early 1960s. It remains
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the primary antibiotic treatment today for shortening
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the course of the disease. Technology that we've
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developed in medicine, physics, nutrition, sanitation,
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engineering, construction, chemistry have resulted
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in things like an astonishingly low global infant
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mortality rate. The lowest it's ever been. It
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results in 80 % of the world's one -year -olds
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having been vaccinated against at least one disease,
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in the number of deaths from natural causes halving
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in the last 100 years. Technology has also had
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a dramatic impact on global average life expectancy.
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If you were born in 1800, on average, on Earth,
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you could expect to live to the ripe old age
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of 29. By 2025, that number had risen to 70.
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The whole planet today has the average life expectancy
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at birth of those born in the UK in 1956. Counterintuitively,
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all those 69 -year -olds in the UK today who
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were actually born in 1956 will on average live
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another 16 or so years. This is because infant
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mortality was a disproportionately active member
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of the mortality family. Until relatively recently.
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In 1965, Britain, 24 in 1 ,000 live -born children
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would fail to survive infancy. By 2015, this
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number had been beaten back to just 4 in 1 ,000.
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The benefits of technological development just
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keep landing. And we don't have to go back to
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the 1800s or the 1950s to find the contrasts.
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The momentum of this global technological development
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has reshaped very recent history. By way of illustration,
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in 1980, 40 % of the world's population lived
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in a low income country. Today, that number has
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not halved. It's halved twice. Only 10 % of the
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world's population today lives in a low -income
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country. All in my generation learned about the
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developing world and the developed world, and
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these labels have long been past their use by
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date. By any measure, our world is a much better
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place to live than at any time in the past. Those
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numbers are little short of astonishing. But
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they seem, shall we say, inconvenient for many
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commentators. For some, painting the world as
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relentlessly bad and in unstoppable decline presents
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the perfect backdrop to whatever woo or ancient
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wisdom or god that they're looking to promote.
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Now, journalists can fairly be accused of committing
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this offence far more frequently than thought
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for the day presenters. They generally, though,
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are not flogging crystals, reiki sessions, or
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sermons by candlelight. Its prevalence in news
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media appears to be a consequence of a long -building
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preference for news that is bad. It happens so
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much, it has a name, Declanism, which is a logical
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fallacy defined as the belief, contrary to objective
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evidence, that a society or institution is in
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decline, commonly resulting from cognitive biases
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where the past is viewed more favourably than
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the future. Rose -tinted hindsight, perhaps.
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I covered this a little in episode 08, in response
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to Lucy Winkett recounting exclusively horrific
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news stories to reinforce some guff she was attempting
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to string together about Good Fridays. I wrote
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then that this seemed understandable. One might
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suppose that if people were convinced that modern
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life were terrible, then you'd be better placed
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to offer your ancient religion from a simpler
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time to people as a means to find solace from
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hardship and pain. I almost wonder if Charles
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somehow heard this without realising it was criticism.
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When anyone seeks to advance their own views
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by making a general contrast between how bad
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things are now compared to some time earlier,
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they are engaged. in deceit. The truth is that
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we are healthier and wealthier than at any time
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in human history. We have more free time, we
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have more education, all because of these advances
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in technology. Despite all the parallel advances
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that we've made in weapons and defense technology,
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we also live in a time of unprecedented peace,
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much as you'd never believe that from looking
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at the news, battle -related deaths. have been
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at around 2 in 100 ,000 as a global average for
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decades. This is astonishingly low. In 1960,
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that rate dropped below 5 per 100 ,000 for the
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first time since before 1900. By 1971, it had
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dropped to 2 in 100 ,000 and it's stayed there
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ever since. So consider this. Fraser has a problem
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with technology? Hmm. or does he have a problem
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with his own inability to make appropriate use
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of technology all our breakthroughs can be used
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for good or ill if the problem is choice is a
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bad vicar blaming his tools because all this
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technology can also be a terrible distraction
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that still small voice of calm is often frazzled
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by the introduction of shiny new tech I suppose
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that's why many find their God out on a walk
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in the sunshine or playing in the garden with
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their children. These technological breakdowns
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remind us of the way our society is now inextricably
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bound up with a technological complexity that
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rules our lives. Yes, technology enables us to
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achieve so much more than our ancestors. It creates
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wealth, puts food on the table, allows us to
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communicate with people all around the world,
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saves people's eyes. But I also have some sympathy
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with those who think we are addicted to it and
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can never be completely free while so deeply
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enmeshed within it. Terrible distraction. Or
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wouldn't you rather be distracted by technology
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than by hunger? By disease? Or by how you barely
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knew your parents before they died? Or by choosing
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which of your daughters will die because you
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can only afford antibiotics for one of them?
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Or by the randomness of death from childhood
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diseases? Or by the superstition and hate that
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develops from ignorance? Am I being unfair? I'm
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not sure I am. Giles is clearly aware that technology
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is more than just the phone in his pocket. He
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mentions the broad benefits that it's delivered,
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like food and wealth, yet listen to him talk
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about people not being free. From what do these
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people want freedom? Social security? Health?
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Long life, clean drinking water? These are the
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kind of naive comments you can forgive from an
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idealistic six -former, but not from anyone,
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given an opportunity to speak to millions for
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three minutes on a Wednesday morning via the
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BBC on Radio 4 in the middle of the Today programme.
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We are not just enmeshed by the products of our
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technological advances. We are, for significant
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part, only alive because of these advances, and
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we live objectively. better lives because of
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all the technology we've developed we'd certainly
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not be able to lead the healthy and prosperous
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lives that we do benefit from the culture sport
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hobbies that we take for granted if it were not
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for technology that apparently creates such reason
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for such complaint back in the 90s i used to
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be the chaplain of an oxford college where the
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chapel didn't use electricity it was lit exclusively
00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:39.230
by candles Some thought this was deliberately
00:15:39.230 --> 00:15:42.110
arcane, and perhaps it was, but there was a lovely
00:15:42.110 --> 00:15:44.490
simplicity about that space that some modern
00:15:44.490 --> 00:15:47.190
churches, with all their reliance on overhead
00:15:47.190 --> 00:15:50.110
projectors and whizzy sound systems, don't quite
00:15:50.110 --> 00:15:52.509
manage to capture, and that includes my own,
00:15:52.529 --> 00:15:57.269
I confess. I feel that Giles really hasn't thought
00:15:57.269 --> 00:16:02.409
this through. Perhaps he's commenting only on
00:16:02.409 --> 00:16:05.070
the technology that he feels is somehow intrusive
00:16:05.070 --> 00:16:08.289
for him, that is somehow a drag on... His plans
00:16:08.289 --> 00:16:11.549
and his ideals. His smartphone, perhaps, and
00:16:11.549 --> 00:16:14.250
the imperfect environment in his church for which
00:16:14.250 --> 00:16:18.169
he blames some speakers and a projector. Clearly,
00:16:18.269 --> 00:16:22.250
it doesn't bother him too much. Or he'd have
00:16:22.250 --> 00:16:26.450
had them removed. He has a choice to make. There's
00:16:26.450 --> 00:16:29.450
no fault here at the door of technology. Now,
00:16:29.470 --> 00:16:32.549
if he wants to conduct services in a shrine to
00:16:32.549 --> 00:16:35.309
a pre -industrial world, what's to stop him?
00:16:36.269 --> 00:16:38.809
If he decides, though, that he and his church
00:16:38.809 --> 00:16:42.690
will achieve their objectives better with a sprinkling
00:16:42.690 --> 00:16:44.909
of the fruits of technological development, then
00:16:44.909 --> 00:16:46.590
he needs to be a little more honest about the
00:16:46.590 --> 00:16:49.309
choices he's made, rather than indulging in meaningless
00:16:49.309 --> 00:16:52.350
nostalgia and kicking up a blamestorm at technology.
00:16:53.789 --> 00:16:57.210
Fraser also claims that technological complexity
00:16:57.210 --> 00:17:03.259
rules our lives. Is that a fair claim? Seems
00:17:03.259 --> 00:17:06.660
unlikely. Sure, it's all but impossible to opt
00:17:06.660 --> 00:17:09.359
out of modern medicine, artificially extended
00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:12.480
winter days, planes, trains and automobiles.
00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:15.319
But why would you? But are we ruled by those
00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:18.359
times? Am I ruled by the utilities that supply
00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:21.019
my house? Am I ruled by my ownership and the
00:17:21.019 --> 00:17:24.000
running of a car? Am I ruled by the perfect coffee
00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.920
I'm able to make effortlessly every morning at
00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:29.839
the press of a button? or by the dishwasher that
00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:35.039
saves me hours each week. No, I'm freed by them.
00:17:35.099 --> 00:17:39.900
I have more choice because they exist. But I
00:17:39.900 --> 00:17:44.420
have just straw -manned that argument. Fraser
00:17:44.420 --> 00:17:47.259
didn't claim that technology rules our lives,
00:17:47.339 --> 00:17:51.880
as I argued against. He claimed that technological
00:17:51.880 --> 00:17:56.599
complexity rules our lives. Don't get me wrong,
00:17:56.680 --> 00:17:59.119
I think Giles is away with the fairies here too,
00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:02.339
but this claim raises a topic that I think does
00:18:02.339 --> 00:18:06.339
merit some attention. My father recently became
00:18:06.339 --> 00:18:10.119
a widower. 70 % of his life was spent in a marriage
00:18:10.119 --> 00:18:13.279
to my mother. Now, it's sad that she's no longer
00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:16.279
with us, but it wasn't unexpected, and by the
00:18:16.279 --> 00:18:19.039
end, Dad had been a full -time carer for many,
00:18:19.140 --> 00:18:22.599
many months. Now, he's gradually rediscovering
00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:25.289
his life in the community where he lives. which
00:18:25.289 --> 00:18:27.269
has involved showing up at various gatherings
00:18:27.269 --> 00:18:31.190
put on for those of a similar vintage. He was
00:18:31.190 --> 00:18:33.609
never one for joining things, but a neighbour
00:18:33.609 --> 00:18:36.410
managed to rope into joining a session on how
00:18:36.410 --> 00:18:39.289
to use phones and computers. My father found
00:18:39.289 --> 00:18:42.509
it very rewarding. Not because he was lacking,
00:18:42.589 --> 00:18:44.529
although had you asked him beforehand, he would
00:18:44.529 --> 00:18:47.809
have said he was, but because he spent the entire
00:18:47.809 --> 00:18:51.170
time showing others how easy and intuitive their
00:18:51.170 --> 00:18:53.410
phones were, with just a few prods in the right
00:18:53.410 --> 00:18:58.839
direction. My father has two children who are
00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:01.660
much more than averagely able to navigate technology,
00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:04.220
so he's never been more than a phone call away
00:19:04.220 --> 00:19:07.279
from a helpful guide. It feels to me that my
00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:09.640
father's generation has done a solid job of getting
00:19:09.640 --> 00:19:11.480
to grips with the complexities of technology.
00:19:11.940 --> 00:19:15.259
My dad stripped and rewired several family homes.
00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:17.500
He fitted a central heating system to one of
00:19:17.500 --> 00:19:20.200
them. He knew how to set the time on a VCR so
00:19:20.200 --> 00:19:22.500
that one, it didn't permanently flash 12, and
00:19:22.500 --> 00:19:24.400
two, it was possible to program the thing to
00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:27.380
do the job for which it had been purchased. Typing,
00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:29.619
though, was not something with which he ever
00:19:29.619 --> 00:19:32.220
became familiar. He was given a laptop by his
00:19:32.220 --> 00:19:35.319
employer in the early 90s. It was only used when
00:19:35.319 --> 00:19:39.180
absolutely necessary. Now, Dad had no difficulty
00:19:39.180 --> 00:19:42.119
using the famous menu interface of the Nokia
00:19:42.119 --> 00:19:46.099
phones. But at no point did he develop any understanding
00:19:46.099 --> 00:19:48.259
of the WIMP environment that dominates computers
00:19:48.259 --> 00:19:52.960
today. Windows, icons, mouse, pointer. The modern
00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.160
smartphone has done a masterful job of replacing
00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:58.140
the mouse and the pointer with the tip of a finger,
00:19:58.259 --> 00:20:01.440
and if you'll forgive the expression, reframing
00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:04.359
the role of Windows. It's brilliantly intuitive
00:20:04.359 --> 00:20:07.539
as an experience. The architecture, though, that
00:20:07.539 --> 00:20:09.640
underpins all of the software design in our phones
00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:14.049
is firmly rooted in WIMP. What is often called
00:20:14.049 --> 00:20:17.390
intuitive software is perhaps just software that
00:20:17.390 --> 00:20:19.349
makes sense to people with a rich experience
00:20:19.349 --> 00:20:22.670
of using operating systems developed by Microsoft
00:20:22.670 --> 00:20:26.009
and Apple. Most people I know today who get the
00:20:26.009 --> 00:20:28.009
most out of their Macs and their smartphones
00:20:28.009 --> 00:20:31.769
and their Windows computers retain a knowledge
00:20:31.769 --> 00:20:34.930
of things like DOS and Unix, which are what predated
00:20:34.930 --> 00:20:37.210
the graphical user interface operating systems
00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:43.140
of Macs and Windows 3 .1. The touchscreen. made
00:20:43.140 --> 00:20:45.900
the whole environment much more accessible. But
00:20:45.900 --> 00:20:47.579
I believe there are some fundamental concepts
00:20:47.579 --> 00:20:50.000
that dictate how that environment functions,
00:20:50.299 --> 00:20:52.920
which are as alien to some as they are familiar
00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:56.940
to me. And this can easily manifest itself as
00:20:56.940 --> 00:21:00.539
impenetrable technological complexity. There
00:21:00.539 --> 00:21:02.980
is a need for a few more like my dad who can
00:21:02.980 --> 00:21:05.599
bridge the understanding gap between Gen X and
00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:08.309
the boomers. between those who've spent an entire
00:21:08.309 --> 00:21:10.470
working life on a keyboard and for those for
00:21:10.470 --> 00:21:12.430
whom keyboards were exclusively for paperback
00:21:12.430 --> 00:21:15.990
writers and secretaries. We do need to be cautious
00:21:15.990 --> 00:21:18.150
of age being presented as too much of a factor.
00:21:18.269 --> 00:21:20.549
I've got contemporaries with less ability to
00:21:20.549 --> 00:21:22.309
use their phones and their Macs than my dad.
00:21:23.009 --> 00:21:25.549
These too managed to spend careers not having
00:21:25.549 --> 00:21:28.009
to spend countless hours operating machines,
00:21:28.089 --> 00:21:31.730
running Windows and whatever version of OS X.
00:21:33.190 --> 00:21:37.119
Smartphones. made ubiquitous this age -old software
00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:39.559
environment. And perhaps what we just need is
00:21:39.559 --> 00:21:42.119
a little more thought on how to ensure all the
00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:44.880
software is as fundamentally intuitive as the
00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:48.519
touchscreen interface. Just another example of
00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:51.440
a challenge where careful thought, policy, education
00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:55.279
and design can help deliver all of society the
00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:57.779
experience of freedom, convenience and enrichment
00:21:57.779 --> 00:22:02.019
that a smartphone can offer. To dismiss, the
00:22:02.019 --> 00:22:06.339
challenge is... of this complexity as tyrannical
00:22:06.339 --> 00:22:10.779
or oppressive is to fail to understand the nature
00:22:10.779 --> 00:22:13.859
of the challenge. I suspect, though, it's much
00:22:13.859 --> 00:22:16.700
worse than that. What I suspect it really is,
00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:20.660
is a failure of curiosity, a failure of wonder,
00:22:20.859 --> 00:22:27.740
and ultimately, a failure to care. Lest we forget.
00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:31.579
Back to Fraser, who is now consumed with the
00:22:31.579 --> 00:22:36.099
musings of some academic French theologian. The
00:22:36.099 --> 00:22:39.140
French anarchist theologian Jacques Ellul argued
00:22:39.140 --> 00:22:41.839
that the problem with technology is that it comes
00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:44.880
to mediate everything we do in the name of efficiency,
00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:48.480
and because of this something about simply being
00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:51.980
is lost. Technology, he said, has become the
00:22:51.980 --> 00:22:57.000
new sacred. Really? Everything I do is mediated
00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:01.279
by my technology, by my flat -screen TV, by humanity's
00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:04.519
ability to treat cancer, by the quality of the
00:23:04.519 --> 00:23:07.259
clean water in my taps, and by the game Angry
00:23:07.259 --> 00:23:11.819
Birds on my iPhone. And all of this technological
00:23:11.819 --> 00:23:17.759
mediation is in the name of efficiency. Hogwash.
00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:21.740
Seems probable that your anarchist, Giles, was
00:23:21.740 --> 00:23:24.380
making reference to a very specific instance
00:23:24.380 --> 00:23:27.720
of technology. Now, if he wasn't, he is full
00:23:27.720 --> 00:23:32.019
of BS. If he was, you failed to relay his comments
00:23:32.019 --> 00:23:35.759
in appropriate context, rendering them meaningless.
00:23:36.259 --> 00:23:38.920
Now, let's imagine Elul had something sensible
00:23:38.920 --> 00:23:41.519
to say, and he was commenting on something specific,
00:23:41.579 --> 00:23:43.279
something that chimes a little with the points
00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:46.579
that he's seeking to land. Corporate email, perhaps.
00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:52.079
If so, still claptrap. So assuming you've sorted
00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:54.019
out your big idea and how you're going to finance
00:23:54.019 --> 00:23:58.140
it, business is about getting things done. If
00:23:58.140 --> 00:24:00.160
you're paying for someone's time, you need them
00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:03.160
to be busy, but not for its own sake. You need
00:24:03.160 --> 00:24:07.019
that busyness to be effective. Now, if email
00:24:07.019 --> 00:24:10.819
is more effective than Royal Mail, there's going
00:24:10.819 --> 00:24:13.799
to be a switch. Now, will there be challenges
00:24:13.799 --> 00:24:17.000
with a wholesale business? overnight adoption
00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:19.640
of an instant electronic messaging service that
00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:23.940
is effectively free to use. Oh yes. Now, have
00:24:23.940 --> 00:24:27.079
many of those been worked out by software writers,
00:24:27.339 --> 00:24:30.099
by experience, and by thoughtful practice? Yes.
00:24:30.200 --> 00:24:33.839
Now, if Elul wrote these comments between 1996
00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:37.680
and 2006 about corporate email, I can see where
00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:40.460
he may have been coming from. There was a tragedy
00:24:40.460 --> 00:24:43.619
of the comments. Email took no effort to use,
00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:49.000
and it was instant. So it was abused. It took
00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:52.180
businesses time to work out how to keep the advantages
00:24:52.180 --> 00:24:55.180
without incurring the burden on staff of 300
00:24:55.180 --> 00:24:58.099
emails a day, of which perhaps 30 were necessary.
00:24:58.660 --> 00:25:01.160
Good businesses, good leaders and good people
00:25:01.160 --> 00:25:04.380
worked this stuff out. No doubt there are many
00:25:04.380 --> 00:25:07.119
workplaces that are stuck in the 90s, but that's
00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:10.660
a them problem. And in any event, none of this
00:25:10.660 --> 00:25:13.519
is a technology issue. It's a use issue. One.
00:25:13.950 --> 00:25:16.869
That can be solved and has been solved to a greater
00:25:16.869 --> 00:25:22.710
extent with thought, policy and education. Let's
00:25:22.710 --> 00:25:26.549
revisit that near enough mass panic that Giles
00:25:26.549 --> 00:25:29.369
described in relation to the Iberian power outage.
00:25:29.670 --> 00:25:32.309
Now, Madrid, the largest city affected, rolled
00:25:32.309 --> 00:25:36.430
out Pan Am, which is this emergency plan. They
00:25:36.430 --> 00:25:40.150
had a plan. The plan worked. Now, in parallel,
00:25:40.430 --> 00:25:43.569
the power companies. systematically identified,
00:25:44.069 --> 00:25:46.150
isolated and fixed the power supply problems.
00:25:46.650 --> 00:25:51.029
All the power was back on within 10 hours. A
00:25:51.029 --> 00:25:54.369
vast amount of that recovery would be automatic.
00:25:55.089 --> 00:25:58.730
Spain and Portugal were automatically isolated
00:25:58.730 --> 00:26:02.410
from the international grid. The nuclear power
00:26:02.410 --> 00:26:05.789
stations in Spain and Portugal disconnected from
00:26:05.789 --> 00:26:10.329
the Iberian grid automatically. The re -energization
00:26:10.329 --> 00:26:13.490
of the system over four countries, Spain, Morocco,
00:26:13.710 --> 00:26:16.970
Portugal and France, was a dance of automation
00:26:16.970 --> 00:26:21.170
and standard operating procedure. Yeah, trains
00:26:21.170 --> 00:26:23.269
stopped and had to be evacuated. Most challenging
00:26:23.269 --> 00:26:27.130
of these were city subway services. Sure, extra
00:26:27.130 --> 00:26:29.349
police were needed in some cities, but predominantly
00:26:29.349 --> 00:26:31.950
to help control traffic in the absence of signals.
00:26:32.690 --> 00:26:35.890
And while backup systems kicked in for hundreds
00:26:35.890 --> 00:26:38.880
of hospitals, Much business and communication
00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:42.220
did come to a halt as the outage affected internet
00:26:42.220 --> 00:26:45.700
infrastructure and cell towers. There were reports
00:26:45.700 --> 00:26:48.160
of fear and confusion. Well, you'd kind of expect
00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:51.660
that. But there were just as many reports of
00:26:51.660 --> 00:26:54.680
streets and terraces developing a cheerful ambience
00:26:54.680 --> 00:26:59.779
and a festive mood. In fairness, Giles broadcast
00:26:59.779 --> 00:27:02.720
his comments barely 48 hours after the outage
00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:05.470
began. He'd have had almost no reliable information
00:27:05.470 --> 00:27:07.849
on what had happened, and he'd have had basically
00:27:07.849 --> 00:27:10.170
what the news providers felt was newsworthy and
00:27:10.170 --> 00:27:13.470
what the trolls thought was clickbait. This should
00:27:13.470 --> 00:27:15.809
have tempered his report of the incident, but
00:27:15.809 --> 00:27:20.890
I'm not sure it did. Fraser did, though, close
00:27:20.890 --> 00:27:24.289
with these sentences. But I wonder if there were
00:27:24.289 --> 00:27:27.009
some people who, freed from the tyranny of the
00:27:27.009 --> 00:27:30.569
internet and the train timetable, found a surprising
00:27:30.569 --> 00:27:33.720
likeness. Or something else, maybe. i wonder
00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:35.619
if there will be a spike in the birth -rate in
00:27:35.619 --> 00:27:38.880
nine months time for a moment perhaps something
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:42.319
had lifted where older gods and more human pleasures
00:27:42.319 --> 00:27:45.180
could be given the time and the space that they
00:27:45.180 --> 00:27:50.319
require that closing comment would prove to be
00:27:50.319 --> 00:27:52.240
much closer to the mark than those with which
00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:54.720
he opened yet he was happy to indulge groundless
00:27:54.720 --> 00:27:57.160
speculation indeed he led with his groundless
00:27:57.160 --> 00:28:00.400
claim of near enough mass panic likely, I imagine,
00:28:00.500 --> 00:28:02.640
because it provided a convenient bridge to the
00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:04.680
rubbish he was planning to spew about technology.
00:28:06.740 --> 00:28:10.400
But technology again here is conflated with business.
00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:14.779
The tyranny of the internet and the train timetable.
00:28:16.099 --> 00:28:19.900
Cobblers. In this case, trains and a data connection
00:28:19.900 --> 00:28:22.339
were in the service of paid work. Almost all
00:28:22.339 --> 00:28:24.539
of us work, we sell our labour or the fruits
00:28:24.539 --> 00:28:27.160
of it. Now Noam Chomsky would have us believe
00:28:27.160 --> 00:28:30.500
that... A job is a form of tyranny. There are
00:28:30.500 --> 00:28:32.680
powerful counter -arguments, but if there is
00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:34.940
any tyranny in the situation upon which Giles
00:28:34.940 --> 00:28:37.480
comments, it's a perception amongst employees
00:28:37.480 --> 00:28:40.359
that the boss is a tyrant, not that the internet
00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:43.259
is a tyrant or that train timetables are tyrants.
00:28:44.059 --> 00:28:47.339
It was the legitimate reason people unexpectedly
00:28:47.339 --> 00:28:52.000
had to sack off work and head out for a beer
00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:55.910
that resulted in the likeness. History is dripping
00:28:55.910 --> 00:28:58.869
with examples of people coming together in adversity
00:28:58.869 --> 00:29:02.109
and shared purpose. The leap that Giles made
00:29:02.109 --> 00:29:06.049
instead to tech tyranny was, at best, willfully
00:29:06.049 --> 00:29:11.589
stupid. If he's right about the birth rate, I
00:29:11.589 --> 00:29:13.970
can imagine this coming at something of a cost.
00:29:14.690 --> 00:29:17.750
So there's a load of commuters, freed from the
00:29:17.750 --> 00:29:20.430
office, taking to the nearby bars and restaurants
00:29:20.430 --> 00:29:22.630
as they improvised alternatives to heading home
00:29:22.630 --> 00:29:26.980
to their loved ones. Let's hope that Fraser's
00:29:26.980 --> 00:29:30.200
contemplation of this esprit de corps benefited
00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:33.000
from one other vital technological development.
00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:39.099
That of birth control. Let's also look at those
00:29:39.099 --> 00:29:42.640
reports of fear and confusion. And what we might
00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:46.519
learn from needlessly adding to them. Within
00:29:46.519 --> 00:29:48.960
23 minutes of the blackout starting, there were
00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:51.200
reports on social media that it was a Russian
00:29:51.200 --> 00:29:54.960
cyber attack. falsely attributed to CNN, the
00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:58.599
European Union and the utility companies. All
00:29:58.599 --> 00:30:02.079
completely false. Malicious or thoughtless actors
00:30:02.079 --> 00:30:04.839
stirring chaos while commuters, families and
00:30:04.839 --> 00:30:07.880
students calmly dealt with pitch black underground
00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:10.420
trains with locked doors and no air conditioning
00:30:10.420 --> 00:30:13.880
to ensure everyone was safely evacuated in the
00:30:13.880 --> 00:30:17.299
absence of platforms in kilometres of unlit tunnels.
00:30:18.180 --> 00:30:21.500
Fear and confusion? Yes, because some like...
00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:24.079
to spread fear and confusion with lies and propaganda
00:30:24.079 --> 00:30:28.480
with little thought of the consequences. Others,
00:30:28.599 --> 00:30:34.059
Giles, just calmly got on. Talk about having
00:30:34.059 --> 00:30:38.099
your perspective and priorities out of kilter.
00:30:38.299 --> 00:30:41.220
Thought for the day is billed as providing religious
00:30:41.220 --> 00:30:43.519
perspective on people and events in the news.
00:30:43.859 --> 00:30:46.619
This... This is the religious perspective for
00:30:46.619 --> 00:30:49.099
which Thought for the Day exists. This is just
00:30:49.099 --> 00:30:52.039
ill thought out, rambling and disinformation.
00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:57.420
It has no place in the output of the BBC. Unfortunately,
00:30:57.799 --> 00:31:02.819
he was not yet done. We worship it and the tech
00:31:02.819 --> 00:31:06.039
moguls who supply it. Every new app promises
00:31:06.039 --> 00:31:08.940
a kind of salvation. Every gadget a better way
00:31:08.940 --> 00:31:13.069
of living. But is my fancy smartphone just a
00:31:13.069 --> 00:31:16.210
tool for me to use, making life easier, more
00:31:16.210 --> 00:31:20.210
efficient? Or am I its slave, its servant? Are
00:31:20.210 --> 00:31:22.750
the new solutions we find to many of life's challenges
00:31:22.750 --> 00:31:26.289
just creating a new network of constraints to
00:31:26.289 --> 00:31:32.890
trap us? We worship technology? What the... Fraser,
00:31:33.109 --> 00:31:35.569
did you realise that you were 20 seconds short
00:31:35.569 --> 00:31:39.569
and started jotting down any old rubbish? Worship
00:31:39.569 --> 00:31:43.170
of technology, salvation through software. Please,
00:31:43.390 --> 00:31:48.549
be serious. And the moguls, Mark Zuckerberg and
00:31:48.549 --> 00:31:53.269
Elon Musk, are among the least liked individuals
00:31:53.269 --> 00:31:57.869
on earth. Now, maybe I missed a meeting. Does
00:31:57.869 --> 00:32:01.089
Tesla now recharge churches? Does Facebook now
00:32:01.089 --> 00:32:04.650
do God Book? Now, the worship of tech as hyperbolic
00:32:04.650 --> 00:32:08.970
rhetoric is tolerable if fanciful. Worship of
00:32:08.970 --> 00:32:12.490
the moguls who supply that tech is a preposterous
00:32:12.490 --> 00:32:15.369
suggestion, and he didn't suggest it, he claimed
00:32:15.369 --> 00:32:21.970
it as fact. Now, there are some interesting examples.
00:32:22.190 --> 00:32:24.289
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are the two that spring
00:32:24.289 --> 00:32:27.769
to mind. Individuals who managed to capture the
00:32:27.769 --> 00:32:30.710
imagination of some section of the public, both,
00:32:30.750 --> 00:32:34.289
if not worshipped, were revered and fetishised.
00:32:34.690 --> 00:32:37.089
With Gates, it was mostly focused on his wealth.
00:32:38.029 --> 00:32:40.970
which in nine years from 1991 grew from just
00:32:40.970 --> 00:32:45.089
$5 billion to over $100 billion. With Jobs, it
00:32:45.089 --> 00:32:47.809
was more layered. He had an astonishing turnaround
00:32:47.809 --> 00:32:50.529
story, but there was also an air of the unconventional
00:32:50.529 --> 00:32:54.109
and a drive to bring beauty, elegance and joy
00:32:54.109 --> 00:32:57.750
to products that for 30 years or more had been
00:32:57.750 --> 00:33:02.569
uninspiring beige and black boxes. But worship?
00:33:03.289 --> 00:33:09.279
No. Not even close. Now, as for whether slave
00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:14.180
or master, that's on you, you muppet. Your decisions,
00:33:14.420 --> 00:33:18.099
your strength of character. Now, enough projecting
00:33:18.099 --> 00:33:21.240
your flaws and bad choices on the tech bros and
00:33:21.240 --> 00:33:23.400
the shiny toys they make. Now, if you're trapped
00:33:23.400 --> 00:33:25.880
in some new network, good to hear that you've
00:33:25.880 --> 00:33:28.319
identified the problem. Surely you're now halfway
00:33:28.319 --> 00:33:31.000
to solving it. Now, guys, get on and do that,
00:33:31.119 --> 00:33:35.230
but please. Enough with broadcasting your journey.
00:33:35.430 --> 00:33:38.170
Thought for the day is not a self -help slot,
00:33:38.369 --> 00:33:40.809
although I can imagine it would be incalculably
00:33:40.809 --> 00:33:43.569
better if it were, which illustrates just how
00:33:43.569 --> 00:33:47.690
low the bar is set by this brainless simpering.
00:33:51.029 --> 00:33:53.990
Well, thank you for listening to Second Thought.
00:33:54.210 --> 00:33:56.609
Thank you also, I guess, to Giles Fraser for
00:33:56.609 --> 00:33:58.670
providing so much into which we could so easily
00:33:58.670 --> 00:34:02.309
get teeth. For details of what this podcast is
00:34:02.309 --> 00:34:05.250
and why I do it, for show notes, links and transcripts,
00:34:05.250 --> 00:34:08.769
please visit secondthoughtfortheday .com or search
00:34:08.769 --> 00:34:11.030
for Second Thought for the Day and subscribe,
00:34:11.230 --> 00:34:13.349
like and comment wherever you get your podcasts.
00:34:13.769 --> 00:34:16.550
Now, if interested in some background, please
00:34:16.550 --> 00:34:18.809
listen to the very first Second Thought podcast,
00:34:18.909 --> 00:34:21.610
which outlines the target of the criticism and
00:34:21.610 --> 00:34:26.070
my objectives. Complaints levelled at Thought
00:34:26.070 --> 00:34:27.670
for the Day are typically that the content is
00:34:27.670 --> 00:34:29.969
boring and repetitive or that it is insufficiently
00:34:29.969 --> 00:34:32.789
diverse, being mostly Christian, never secular,
00:34:32.989 --> 00:34:35.730
and perhaps even falling short of the BBC's requirements
00:34:35.730 --> 00:34:39.289
for impartiality. My complaint is something else.
00:34:39.989 --> 00:34:43.429
The BBC is not only required to maintain due
00:34:43.429 --> 00:34:48.760
impartiality, but also due accuracy. It's my
00:34:48.760 --> 00:34:51.400
view that the BBC fails in its duty to hold thought
00:34:51.400 --> 00:34:54.760
for the day to any standard of accuracy. Typically
00:34:54.760 --> 00:34:57.260
these failings take two forms. The first is simply
00:34:57.260 --> 00:35:01.699
a failure to relay facts faithfully or to present
00:35:01.699 --> 00:35:03.800
as facts something that is merely conjecture
00:35:03.800 --> 00:35:07.179
or belief. The second failure is one of reason.
00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:10.679
Logical fallacies litter many thought for the
00:35:10.679 --> 00:35:13.539
day broadcasts. Every logical fallacy distorts
00:35:13.539 --> 00:35:16.019
truth and any deviation from the truth is by
00:35:16.019 --> 00:35:20.139
definition an example. of inaccuracy now i'm
00:35:20.139 --> 00:35:23.920
not here to mock faith or the faithful or religion
00:35:23.920 --> 00:35:27.980
but clearly i do when justified but mostly the
00:35:27.980 --> 00:35:30.179
podcast is here to shoot holes that deserve to
00:35:30.179 --> 00:35:33.360
be shot in the false premises unsupported claims
00:35:33.360 --> 00:35:36.480
hanging comparisons non -sequiturs and any other
00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:40.039
logical fallacies that we find the bbc has allowed
00:35:40.039 --> 00:35:42.039
thought for the day to trot out