From apps that do what they THINK we want rather than listening to what we want; us wanting cars that back up, fasten seat belts, adjust seats, turn on headlights and even drive for us; to the glut of safety precautions aimed at protecting idiots from themselves — or keeping the lazy or incompetent from being fired . . .
. . . what do you think of this trend? Have you personally encountered it yourself — or been close to it at work and just shaken your head?
What do you think happens when the burden of thinking for ourselves and looking out for ourselves is lessened, or removed?
Is it a step forwards . . . or backwards? Progression, or regression?
© 2026 – SoulSequel
50 responses to “Idiot-proofing the world”
Awhile back there was a political cartoon in response to the lady who got some odd millions of dollars after having burning herself on McDonald’s coffee. The cartoon had a woman in a kitchen. Around the kitchen there were warnings:
– On the cabinets “Warning: bashing your head repeatedly against the cabinets may cause personal injury.”
– On the stove “Warning: leaving your hand on the burner while it is on may cause personal injury.”
– On the sink: “Warning: submerging your head in water may cause personal injury.”
Some warnings are necessary. Some are like… “Now, what???”
@Jear77
In those instances I understand it would be a corporation wanting to protect itself from lawsuits.
But is there a risk of actually generating more and more stupid people? People who need everything cautioned and labeled? People who genuinely don’t know that using the hair dryer in the bathtub can kill them?
@griz How many warnings are in the bible? Is everything spelled out clearly enough for an idiot?
@Jear77
Allegedly, enough for the purpose intended!
Leaving us to choose whether that intended purpose is:
– profit/loss-based religious control
– a lovey dovey wishing machine, or
– Fellowship
@griz perhaps god should have made a preface which cut the crap and kept it succinct, maybe around 100 pages or less.
@Jear77
Matt 22:37-40
Everything else is just expansion on this for those who need the concepts spelled out.
@griz Without googling it i am pretty sure what it is. I’m quite familiar with the new testament… Probably the Sermon on the Mount IIRC. Love the LORD with all your soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
Kinda hard to love someone you can’t trust more than you can throw them and one would have an awfully hard time throwing something that’s not exactly physical…
@Jear77
it’s exceedingly hard to trust someone you’ve not personally known and are going on heresay!
Trust needs Fellowship to flourish.
@griz A god who would set up the dominoes and knew the outcome beforehand that the chain reaction would take place, one who had sufficient power to do otherwise, is not one to be trusted OR loved. I may not have the ability to see what needs (or needed) to be changed… but this is in no way a good thing. Saying “this is very good” is the height of delusion.
@Jear77
Is it fair to say that one can only judge the parents that they have knownas parents?
And even then, only from a child’s perspective?
Also, all dominos can do is fall. We don’t have to.
@griz actually it’s the only logical outcome to providing limits without additional information.
@Jear77
You must have hatched out as a fully grown adult!
The nature of childhood is learning about limits for yourself, without a lot of instruction. (Or even despite instruction)
Actually, the same process persists into adulthood unless one lives in a cell.
@griz no. More to the point that there was no recorded explicit conversation with god stating “oh, BTW, you’re going to be tempted. This is what you’re going to be needing to be on the lookout for… and when it happens, call for me, i’ll be around.” Without that it’s basically that god knew and didn’t say shit.
@Jear77
The conversation you crave is there. But the only way to know someone’s voice is to be in fellowship with them. And one cannot hear that still small voice if they are more in fellowship with legalism religion or their own ego.
The Bible instructs in this. But if we choose to listen to legalism religion or ego, they are the only voice we will hear.
@griz the key points in what I said is that A) if it happened it should have been recorded and B) a violation shouldn’t have been the end all be all of a fellowship where we saw it. When teaching a baby what is right and what is wrong, you don’t throw the newborn child out of your house due to its first mistake. God did. Sorry, that makes one wonder at the “parenting techniques” of this god of yours. In legal terms it would be the equivalent of child abandonment with the very first people in existence. No thank you, not the type of anything I want to have in my life. It’s not for me.
@Jear77
As I have said, ego comes up with all kinds of excuses and reasons why we cannot hear.
This is the quintessential “flesh opposes the Spirit”. Our surging self, is all that fills our ears.
If it’s not “king me”, then it’s not for me.
@griz then the one who created the flesh is to blame, not the fleshy thing
@Jear77
Perhaps what you need saving from the most, is the notion that assessing blame somehow fixes things?
@griz Let’s take a real world example: Let’s say a company creates a robot, a car, etc. and due to a flaw in the programing, the mechanical nature of it, it breaks down and kills a bunch of people. It’s found out that the company knew about the flaw and went about covering it up — or simply ignored the implications of the design flaw. The company is sued. Should the company be held accountable? I’d say yes. This is the EXACT SAME thing that god did, biblically. And you see no problems with that? Why not?
@Jear77
The flaw in this reasoning is that we are not talking robots or cars.
We are not even talking animals who have no choice in being slaves to instinct and feeling.
We are talking about something quite unlike any of these things.
Personally, I find I just cannot so easily degrade or devalue something so amazingly made.
@griz We ARE robots, biological robots, but robots nonetheless programmed with impulses to do certain things, altered by environment (the old nature and nurture), with the ability to grow, adapt, and change. And one thing irrespective of anything else: an expiration date. THAT one point above and beyond anything else makes us MORE robots than anything we can create.
@Jear77
In a way yes.
But unlike any “robot” that a corporation might get sued for!
And we can be very controlled by our “base programming”. But there’s data from a “higher source” by which that programming can be altered. Even with a highly sophisticated A.I., that “higher source”, would still be a function of the “base source”.
Agreed?
@griz yes and no. If there is a higher source code than our biology, there should be a code, a “hack” as it were to instantly change anything we want. There is not. Things take an AMAZINGLY long time to change, even if we change this or that. Case in point: a person who’s smoked will never, even after quitting, have the health as someone who’s never done so. The effects can take months, even years do reset back to normal, and most people can never completely shake the addiction.
@Jear77
Even the analogy of a “hack” implies a manipulation of reality, resolution “of us”.
Yes. Some choices we make have life-long consequences.
Perhaps longer.
I think of the passage that says we are “wonderfully and fearfully made”. The chance of initiating something with lasting detrimental consequence is perhaps the “fearful” part. We have been granted a LOT of power to consciously effect outcomes. Far more than any other life-form known. And we would have just cause for pause before putting our heads down and charging ahead; because we do NOT know nearly as much as our egos would like to fancy.
The “wonderfully made” to me, is not just the intricate wonder of “what is”; but the incredible possibilities that “might be” . . . depending on us making wise decision.
I don’t lament that we have the ability to choose poorly. I celebrate that we have the ability to choose wisely.
And perhaps the wisest choice we could make, is to not fancy ourselves in any way, as any kind of “almighty”.
@griz I would agree with that we are not almighty… but that does not imply that there is such a thing out there. All it implies is that we’re mortal, flawed, human. And the god, as proposed in the pages of bible is not one I want anything to do with, in this one or the next. Add to that with the only way to obtain answers in regarding how things are set up is to study the book which I see as morally objectionable, Couple that with there is no scientific proof to such a thing, it leaves me no choice but to say “no thank you.”
@Jear77
Using a current lack of resolution or certainty as any kind of “proof”, does make it sound like we think our current state is “almighty” enough to make such a broad exclusion.
Something “not behaving” as we might like or even understand, is no kind of proof against it existing . . . UNLESS we are fancying our current state as some kind of “almighty”.
Re-frame your comment. The God as proposed by religion: because that is what picks and chooses and excludes and biases and postulates . . . and then acts as if those conclusions are some kind of almighty.
My impression of God starts in Scripture. Not just parts extracted for some “scare-em-into-heaven” sermon. ALL parts of it, in the fullest possible context my limited mind can grasp.
And from this starting point, comes spiritual fellowship with Life. A fellowship that deepens, and becomes clearer over time, and goes beyond what the dead words on paper and impressions of primitives recorded. It doesn’t negate them. It shows them as early attempts to grasp a very “alien” spiritual subset of DNA.
The Divine Nature of the Almighty. That DNA belongs in our spiritual makeup. Without it, we are just lost souls trying to make God fit into our incomplete and insufficient DNA.
But the first step needs to be recognizing that religion is more about serving ourselves (wishes, feelings etc) than about God’s DNA.
You keep returning to the faulty teachings of man-made religion that is trying to put the True Almighty, into jars and beakers and equations of what we perceive to be the ultimate power in the Universe:
Our understanding.
@griz I know enough that the deity as proposed by the bible created this scenario of mortality. That part, if i knew no other would be enough for me to reject it completely. My disgust is further amplified with the inclusion many of the other parts of the bible that I find morally objectionable, based around what is “good”… and oddly enough the tragedies that could have been prevented. Are you familiar with the saying “with friends like these, who needs enemies?” I’ll pass.
@Jear77
Do you remember all those verses about human understanding being insufficient to fully comprehend God; about flesh opposing Spirit; about the “letter that kills but the Spirit that brings life”?
Remember that you yourself have all but acknowledged that all you had were the dead words written on paper, and no Spiritual aspect to your conversion; no fellowship with God.
@griz that matters nothing. YET… even according to you the VERY words contained therein are the key, are they not? For who could know of the god, salvation, everything in the bible… WITHOUT the bible. Quote a conundrum, yes?
My cousin — who I like to go places with — has a car that has the automatic seat belts that surround me and tighten up automatically as soon as you close the door. I go from the feeling of happiness that Sue-Sue and I are going on a girl’s day out —- to absolute terror that I am being strapped in and tied up as a hostage!!!!! I have to take a breath and realize that the witch did not suddenly kidnap me, it is just Sue-Sue and this is supposed to be a happy going-on-an-adventure moment. I hate the automatic seat belts!!!
@ladybarbara
I cannot find it right now, but there was a funny video on YouTube where man got into such a vehicle and leaned out the window to talk to someone. The automatic seat belt engaged and smeared his glasses right off his face making him drop something in his hand. He opened the door to get it and the seat belt retracted wrapping around his neck and garotting him.
Do we REALLY need all these gadgets to fasten seat belts, parallel park, flush the toilet, turn on the tap, dispense the paper towel, turn off the lights, activate our headlights for us???
When does a “convenience” become a generator of laziness and perhaps even stupidity?
I already see a dozen or more people a day driving around in dangerous or low light conditions without their headlights because the computer hasn’t turned them on yet!
And they carry on unsafely, thinking that everyone flashing their lights at them are just jerks!
I’m just waiting for the automatic ass-wipers to arrive on the scene, and people walking around with stinky foul rears because the machine didn’t do it for them and they’ve forgotten how!
@griz There are toilets that have an ass cleaner built in. They have a button for flush, a button for a spray of water and a puff of drying air on your butt-hole, a harder squirt of water flow that is strong enough to give you and enema, and the bidet squirt that cleans a ladies parts —– or shoots water at your balls at an alarming strength of flow!!! All with the touch of the right button. I hated it when I was a house cleaner, and while on hands and knees cleaning the toilet, I pushed the wrong button. Instead of the toilet flushing, I got a strong squirt of water in my face !!!!!!!!!!
I did dearly love the self-cleaning ovens when I had my house cleaning business. I would arrive at a house and put the burner grates, and burner pans from the top of the stove inside the oven and simply turn it on. Then, I cleaned the rest of the house as the oven cleaned itself and was ready to wipe out and wipe off, putting the burner pans and grates back in sparkling clean order before I pack up to leave the cleaned house. It made the oven cleaning a snap to do. It sure beat having to take the oven parts and stove-top grates and pans out to the driveway to spray with oven cleaner and let them set in the sun. Then spray them with the garden hose a few hours later. Or, having to spray and wipe the inside of the ovens. I love the push-button cleaning of a self-cleaning oven.
@ladybarbara
We come up with some genuinely good time-saving and common sense stuff.
It’s just a good thing that we is a species don’t tend to get carried away with things!
Imagine all the leisure time generated by not having to flip light switches, flush toilets, pull paper towel, turn on our headlights, wipe our butts!
And then there’s the automatic automatic oven cleaner! It anticipates when the oven needs cleaning and you don’t even have to flip a lever!
It’s just too bad it mistook the cat that crawled in for a hairy mess that needed to be nuked!
@griz One of the houses I worked at was on a big computer that would order groceries to be brought to the front doorstep. However, when the woman programmed the voice activated word for Tide Detergent — the dog barked as she said, “Tide Detergent”. From then on, every day when the mailman put mail in the door slot, the dog barked and the house computer ordered Tide Detergent to be purchased and brought to the door step. We had quite a lifetime supply of Tide Detergent stored in the garage pantry shelves. Since the woman was a Congress lady always in Washington DC, or away on trips, I was not able to stop the ordering of Tide Detergent. So, I just took care of the house and the dog and minded my own business.
@ladybarbara
And tried barking at it yourself a few times, eh?!
@griz It only recognized the dog’s tone and voice quality.
@ladybarbara
But did you at least try?!
I’m sure many would pay good money to see Lady Barbara bark at the Senator’s house to see if a package of Tide would arrive!
@griz Sorry, but no. I was always professional and wore my black dress and white apron with dignity and a serious professionalism that they paid for.
I only broke that “professional” line once. Grace had a very deep Philippine accent at home. We were chopping salad for her dinner and she said, “Don cut you pingers.” Then the phone rang and she answered it and said in a crisp, non accented voice, “Senator Grace Napalitano. May I help you?” ——— I broke out laughing. She gave me a look that could kill, so, I never did that again. I stayed her maid for years until she was a Congress Lady. She was serious and so I was serious in giving her flawless service.
@ladybarbara
I’ve always selected jobs that afford me the freedom to bark should I feel the need!
(It’s on my resume and I still get hired two positions of responsibility, so go figure!)
@griz When people are out of the state a lot and leaving their house and pets (and a few times their children) in your care, they expect that you are serious and professional about guarding their property. Any kind of goofing around on the job is frowned upon.
The exception to that was Chris Tucker had enough of a sense of humor to get my humor. One day I was spending many hours not only cleaning the house and taking care of Mother Tucker, but cleaning all of the windows in the house. I was spending a full 24 hours of solid work. I deserved meal breaks. I baked Mother Tucker a coffee cake and had permission to fix a small coffee cake for myself. I took my coffee and coffee cake to the upper deck sun patio to take my break. Chris came home in a bad mood and when he did not see me working, he was livid with anger and shouting when he found me enjoying my break on the patio chairs. “What is this shit?!?!” he shouted. To which I calmly answered, “Coffee cake.” Another time, he insisted that I clean the baseboards. When I was cleaning them with my Swiffer mop, he insisted that I get on my hands and knees with a toothbrush. I said, “OK, I will go get your toothbrush.” Other than that, we did not do much joking around. He did not want to leave his house and dogs in my care for weeks if I was not going to be very seriously professional in my duties.
@ladybarbara
If you came to clean my house, I would let you bark to see if Tide detergent materialized!
@griz Oh, another story. After Katrina hit Louisiana, Chris Tucker allowed 3 families to stay in his condos until he could buy houses for them to move to. I was still supposed to clean the condos with the guests thinking that I was their maid. They set the microwave on fire and burnt the kitchen cabinets. I was in the middle of giving them an angry and scolding speech ………. when Chris Tucker walked in the door behind me. I turned and yelled at him, “Why the hell don’t you have a theme song that plays before you enter the room??? Other comedians have theme songs!!!” At that point, I was ready to quit. Those 3 families had tested my patience to the very end.
I suppose that you would be an understanding boss. There were a few of them, but not many. Most people are sooooooo serious and grouchy.
@ladybarbara
Pressures built and accumulate; particularly with “success”. My bosses have all had their moments, good and bad. I always try to strike a casual, even joking relationship alongside my being very serious about my work.
I identify with people who work (ie, labor) for a living. I would try to retain some of that if I was a boss. I don’t know how successful I would be.
Now that was funny about a theme song! I hope he was able to appreciate the humor of it.
@griz Yes, Chris did understand the joke about having a theme song. He could also see why I was so upset with these 3 families. They had never had a dish washer and did not know how to wash dishes in one. The microwave was confusing to them, too. If something takes 45 minutes to cook in a regular oven, or stovetop, then they set the microwave for 45 minutes and the food caught fire. The fire burnt the cabinets. Chris was lividly angry about that. He understood why I was at wit’s end with these people. Chris went out and bought three houses in the city of Compton and moved the families into fully-paid-for houses. Chris was forgiving like that. He had that high pitched voice as he bitched about things, but he has a heart of gold and he is so kind to people.
Sadly, the world is not idiot proof…
Kin Jong Un is probably a good example of that, as are many others.
Don’t get me started.
@immortal_pirate
Agreed.
But is the current drive to try to make it so, backfiring on us in creating more idiots?
@griz Like I said, don’t get me started…lol
Overpopulation comes to mind. The herd should be thinned if you are too dumb to use your head. Law for a seatbelt? Think it’s stupid? Don’t use one and potentially be a non future contributor to the gene pool. BIke helmets? same thing.
We learn by considering how to stay safe, because we consider the why of why we need to. If it has anything to do with a choice that only affects you personally. Choose for yourself.
@spitfire3dc
That’s part of it and it bears consideration. It’s the “natural selection” of evolution see in the natural system. And encouraging idiotic behavior is in a way, like encouraging wildlife to accept handouts of food. It turns them into vermin who use the easy ride to breed out of control!
I remain mindful that we are talking about human beings here. but sometimes an uncomfortable analogy is needed to shock us out of our stupor!
Plus you have to feel for the guys whose job it is to clean the hair, teeth and eyeballs up off the roadways. (Do you know how hard it is to clean hair, teeth and eyeballs up off the roadway??)