Why Things Bite Back

What do you think?

So what is a revenge effect?

In the introduction to the book you allude to one or two weird cases: the Audi sedans that mysteriously accelerated on their own and the computer that refused to work when one particular technician walked into the room. Do ghosts in the machine really exist?

Is the trend of the revenge effect accelerating as we approach the end of the twentieth century. Is it getting worse?

Am I right in thinking it is not the machinery or the technology that is at fault it is the way we use it? My example would be the paperless office which hasn't happened. Is that because we refuse to let go of paper or because we refuse to learn how to work on screen.

But technology can make life better AND easier. Where is the revenge effect in my TV remote?

So a revenge effect doesn't necessarily happen to a person it can happen to all sorts of things.

And they take revenge quite literally by smashing up the car?

Is there a reverse revenge effect. For example "bad" technology such as nuclear weapons have actually had unforeseen positive effects? Haven't they actually kept the peace?

We are now living in a pessimistic age, after the atomic optimism of the fifties, the white heat of the technological revolution has long since faded - are we now too cynical about technology?

So what is happening now. Do we just accept what we have?

Are Network Computers a revenge effect on PCs which have become too cumbersome, too flabby, too slow with applications simply too big? Or is it simply another way of commerce selling us the same technology?

One thing that struck me about PCs and their negative aspects is that in a positive way they have generated all sorts of new industries such as the computer magazine industry http://www.pcw.vnu.co.uk and consultancy.

And the other strange thing to emerge in computing is the emergence of never ending beta software. Microsoft puts versions of its software for people to download so people become guinea pigs on a global scale. There never seems to be a finished version.

Are we moving to software with built-in obsolescence?

Would you agree that the world is still a better place on the whole despite all these revenge effects?

Some people suggest that RSI does not exist. There is no medical proof.