[ExI] (In)voluntary technology

David Lubkin lubkin at unreasonable.com
Wed Jul 31 16:19:06 UTC 2013


<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/technology/warrantless-cellphone-tracking-is-upheld.html> 


One line caught my eye:

>In any event, the court added, the use of cellphones "is entirely voluntary."

What technologies are there whose use courts have conceded isn't
"entirely voluntary," or even "isn't voluntary"?

Each method of transportation other than walking can be argued is
voluntary. You don't have to fly; you can drive. You don't have to drive; you
can take the bus. But in aggregate, I'd guess that less than 1% of adult
Americans could survive without directly using one of them, and effectively
zero could survive without goods or services that reached them using
a transportation technology.

Is use of a landline entirely voluntary? A refrigerator? A toilet? How
pervasive does a tech need to be?


-- David.




More information about the extropy-chat mailing list