Edge.org’s “Annual Question” for 2013 is “What *should we be worried about?”

The question is answered in short essays by lots of intelligent people, many of whom would be familiar to the people on this forum?

www.edge.org/responses/q2013

No questions from me. Just posted in case any one is interested.

The baggage retrieval system at Heathrow.

The declining standard of the responses to the Edge Annual Question.

I would have thought Bono would have hijacked this effort from The Edge.

better to not say anything – it would only worry them

what worries me is the lack of reliability in most devices

you buy something , anything and its not too long before the thing has been easily damaged or irrevocably damaged

I was discussing torches to day with someone at work, explaining to him this notion and he told me that when they make torches these days the tracks taking the current are hair thin – he was telling me about a situation where someone had three torches that were all broken when he needed them to work!

the plastic being used is unsuitable, the switch mechanism will barely last a few months

as a result of all this crap being made we are generating more rubbish, little of it is being recycled – it just becomes landfill

I suggested to him that we should get together and manufacture a reliable torch once I’ve got my shed up and running. start making reliable devices and make that a selling point

we agreed that the switch mech shouldn’t have a moving part like a switch

some torches went down the path of the switch being the contact with a bulb and contacts when the torch head is twisted

if you are turning the torch on and off that’s not so good though

If only cheap things having cheap quality was the worst thing we had to worry about.

water