"Technical solutions for social problems almost never work"

[Keith Moore <[e-mail]>]

> 1) Technical solutions for social problems almost never work.

a bit of thought will reveal that technical solutions often do help 
with social problems, though they might not solve the problems 
entirely or forever.  

for example, locks on doors and surveillance cameras are technical 
mechanisms to deter theft.  they don't prevent theft, but they do
discourage it.

of course there are also plenty of ineffective technical solutions, and 
of technical solutions that do more harm than good.  (car alarms might 
be a good example).  but social solutions for social problems don't
always work well either.   sometimes a combination of the both kinds of
mechanism works better - e.g. locks on doors coupled with prison terms 
for convicted thieves probably discourages theft better than either 
mechanism could do alone.

both engineers and legislatures seem to have too much faith in their
tools of choice.

Keith