cellphones on planes

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Mike O'Dell" <mo () ccr org>
Date: March 25, 2007 12:39:34 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: cellphones on planes

Dave,

Bob Frankston undermines his own point with an extrapolation into the  
ridiculous.  It's not about technology or Luddism, it's about polite  
behavior in a public space and reasonable concern over the expected  
escalation of impoliteness that would result from turning an airliner  
into a communal phone booth. The state of "Modern Air Travel" has  
already made "Greyhound in the sky" a charitable description of the  
experience - the addition of numerous people shouting at invisible  
parties would make it seem all the more like The NY Port Authority  
Bus Terminal, not merely a bus ride.

I'm sorry if Bob can't imagine being  out of touch for six hours but  
he's a victim of his own escalating expectations. Just like FedEx
created institutionalized support for procrastination, the cellphone
has made "not-quite-in-time" planning the norm instead of the rare
exception.

Just because it's no longer considered
conspicuous consumption to have a cellphone, it doesn't follow that
the design of the universe includes the requirement that cellphones
work all the time, everywhere. There are lots of places (outside of
airliners) where cellphones simply don't work, and in some cases,
you put your life at risk believing they do.  (And what will
happen when people discover that airliner cellular systems have
finite capacity and people start getting call failures??)

Heiden's Law seems particularly applicable here:

        "When you want it bad, you get it bad, and
         most people want it in the worst way."
                                - Heidi Heiden

I tell you what - if someone can come up with a device which does
for the mouth what earphones do for the ears*, then I'll reconsider
my view on the notion of a divine right of continuous connectivity.

        -mo

* Earphones let you hear all you want without disturbing anyone else.
The required device would let you talk all you want, likewise.


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