Trusting technology and eliminating risk

All the technology in the world can never eliminate risk

As the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 heads into its third week, a great deal of nonsense continues to be written about the flight and how its disappearance could have been prevented.

One good example of the tosh that’s being written is this piece in The Conversation where UK Open University lecturer Yijun Yu declares that cloud based technologies would have helped us solve the mystery.

While this may be true, Yijun’s article shows a deep trust in technology to solve all of our problems; in this case, insanely complex verification systems to ensure no-one is doing anything untoward.

Yijun is correct that better inflight technology could have told us much about MH370s location, however he also illustrates how we’ve become a society that doesn’t understand risk as we look to our gadgets to save us when a problem happens.

A cloud connected Boeing 777 probably wouldn’t have saved the souls on MH370 and ultimately it may prove that the technology wouldn’t have helped the searchers either.

We simply don’t know until the plane is found and, hopefully, the flight data information analyzed.

Despite the loss of MH370 air travel is safer than any other form of mass transportation and much of that is due to technology being cleverly applied.

There’s no doubt there’s much to be learned from the current search, we can expect rules on inflight communications to be tightened substantially as a consequence, but we’ll never eliminate risk.

In the meantime, we should join the families in praying for those lost aboard the aircraft and quit the silly theories.

Image of Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 by Aldo Bidini via Wikimedia

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Author: Paul Wallbank

Paul Wallbank is a speaker and writer charting how technology is changing society and business. Paul has four regular technology advice radio programs on ABC, a weekly column on the smartcompany.com.au website and has published seven books.

2 thoughts on “Trusting technology and eliminating risk”

  1. Well said. It’s certainly been an intriguing mystery, but while we’ve all been transfixed by the missing plane the appreciation of the tragedy of all those lives lost has been on hold.

    1. Thanks Jackie, I really feel for the families and I’m disappointed at the amount of really ill informed speculation that’s been spinning around the fate of the airliner.

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