Whoa There

Life has lots of little complications, but we humans seem to want to add more and more. It isn't good enough to have our automobiles tell us when they need oil or the trunk is open, but now they want to drive themselves. Recently, this latest gizmo proved to be a killer. What it tells me about our love affair with electronics, is that we are slowly allowing ourselves to lose control. It starts in little ways. We trust that the microwave oven will go off when it says it will. I had a nasty experience with one that didn't. Fortunately, I was present and could pull the plug and stop what might have become a serious fire. The appliance was near new and one of the top quality brands. Neither mattered. The electronics failed. Why do we think we can trust, to be infallible, devices that run themselves?  We trust that it's safe if an "expert" says it is. The news is, that nothing, not people nor machines, is entirely safe or reliable or trustworthy. We need to be careful that there is always a manual fail-safe option. My residence is currently installing a host of security devices and aids while we, joint owners,  all know perfectly well  that they are not completely foolproof. There are criminals out there who  make their livings out of knowing how to overcome any and all kinds of security measures and who knows, could be also the ones installing them. It has happened. Paranoia you charge? These days of hearing about identity theft, fraud and street crime, a little paranoia or preparedness might be a very good thing to own. We don't want to go around being suspicious of everything, but let's call it simply, a self-protective caution. The first rule of self-defense is  to avoid getting oneself into a situation that might require more stringent defensive action than can be dealt with. Stepping into a vehicle that runs itself, puts a lot of trust  into a machine that is robotic. Pushing a vehicle  button and sitting back to let it make road decisions with other huge, heavy rolling beasts whizzing alongside, is trust-overload in my book. It's about as safe as texting while driving which some idiot potential criminals continue to do in spite of all statistics that say it is lethal. Even going on holiday without turning off the water source is too trusting. Coming back from a lovely cruise once, I was greeted by water rushing out the door. A pipe had burst days before. The months it took to clean up the mess was not worth it. Hmm. Guess I ought to get one of those electronic devices that shows me what's happening in my house when I'm not there?