What is a disaster and how does it compare to a catastrophe or a tragedy? A few months ago I began thinking about this. I wanted to use this as part of a future lecture on the effects of technology (and probably an advanced form of procrastination). The basic idea is that most of us have short memories. We trust technology implicitly and we see the failure of technology as a brief, unfortunate anomaly.
While writing about the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident these thoughts came back and I began to dig for a suitable list of man-made disasters. The man-made is an easy criterion since all technology is man-made (this is a specie-ist argument where I am brutally discounting tools made by animals and aliens). But what other criteria should be involved when attempting to demonstrate the failures of technology and their connection to trust?
- War is a disaster but it is for the most part intentional.
- The slow erosion of the ozone layer may be a disaster but â?? do we include it?
- How does one differentiate between extinction and natural selection in relation to the disaster?
- What about â??naturalâ?? disasters which have been triggered or aggravated by technology?
Therefore for the purpose of a lecture on trust in technology events can have disastrous consequences without being disasters.
Feel free to add comments on this! To be continuedâ?¦