Trusting the traffic lights in old-time Phoenix

As someone who has always loved the latest technology, and was always interested in things like that,  even when I was young, from pocket calculators to computers, I know that it often surprises people that I like old photos of Phoenix, and Los Angeles. And when I try to explain that I'm not pining away for "the good old days", that I'm time-traveling, I often get blank looks. I'm interested in everything that's thoroughly modern, like the traffic light there on the corner of 1st Avenue and Adams in the 1920s. I'll see if I can explain.

As I drift into my senior years now, I hear more and more of my contemporaries say that they just don't trust the new technology. I might suggest the benefits of getting a Smart Phone, or maybe a website that they may like, most often they rear like a startled mustang. They say things like, "I don't trust the new technology! What if..." and they list a bunch of perfectly valid reasons for not using the latest technology. I've lived long enough now to just sigh and let them go, because I know that one of the first things that they're gonna do is to go and prove their trust in a technology: they're going to drive their car through an intersection on a green light.

And yes, there are some serious hazards to doing that - Phoenix is the number one city in red light running, but the most common worry that people would have would be if someone was speeding, or drunk, or texting. I've never, ever, heard someone ask, "What if the light doesn't turn to red in the other direction?" And there you go. I rest my case.

The technology that allowed people to place their lives in the hands of some electronic switches has been around for so long that you would have to be a very cynical person to imagine that the technology will fail. In my lifetime I've seen traffic lights fail, when the power fails to them, but I've never heard of a light that turned green without turning red in the opposite direction. Of course I know it happened. I can't cite an example, it's just my personality.

I'm a techy person, someone who has created web pages, and I know that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. You may recognize that as Murphy's Law, but I've preferred O'Toole's Law, which is that Murphy was an optimist. Everything I did I tested over and over and then there would be a new variable, and the web page wouldn't display properly. I used to say that I didn't believe that the light in my refrigerator went out when I closed the door (still skeptical about that!). Those of you who have written HTML can bear me out on that.

So, really, you don't want to get me started on all of technology things that we lean on so heavily, from the system that brings water into the valley to the electronic stuff in the air conditioning on the roof of my house that could fail at any time. I can give you so many reasons not to trust the latest technology that we would have to sit drinking coffee, or quaffing beers for hours. And there's only one reason to trust the latest technology, the way that we trust traffic lights - it keeps things moving.

Everything today is thoroughly modern,
Check your personality.
Everything today makes yesterday slow,
Better face reality.

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