Good points all. Honestly I think the biggest barrier to the effective use of technology in these situations is that is another thing to carry. Carrying more t

Good points all. Honestly I think the biggest barrier to the effective use of technology in these situations is that is another thing to carry. Carrying more than you have to sucks, and I know a lot of athletes/etc who carry the bare minimum possible with them. I know people who run without their IDs, because they find them overly encumbering. A lot of it is complacency. How much trouble can you get as an experienced person in an area you are familiar with? The answer is obviously a lot, but there are stories of people who are otherwise extremely experienced dying in situations that should have otherwise been routine. Technology allows us to get closer to the limit, and in turn encourages risky behavior. Once we feel comfortable on that edge, we tend to take fewer precautions. (I forget the term for this, I believe it is something like risk displacement.) A simple personal example -- I once locked myself on the roof of a high-rise in Chicago by accident. We were a few floors from the top of the building, and I wanted a breath of fresh air. The cinder block I used to hold the door open rotated and let the door close, and I had left my cellphone charging at my desk. My adrenaline spiked. I walked around the roof. I could see people at street level and in the atrium 14 stories below, but we were right next to the L, and there was no way to yell loud enough to get anyone's attention. It was a bit chilly, and I wondered if I would die of hypothermia if I was stuck on the roof overnight. Once my adrenaline subsided a bit, I took a look at the door and realized I could jimmy it open if I had a piece of metal. Luckily I managed to find a bit of wire buried in the gravel of the built-up roof, and I was able to shim the door open. I went back to my office a bit rattled. None of my coworkers even noticed I had been gone, though one noticed that I looked a bit cold and shaky. I have no idea how long I could have been stuck up there if I hadn't managed to shim the door. Since then I've always made sure to keep my cellphone (which I find to be an encumbrance) on my person, and let somebody know where I'm going if at all possible. It was amazing how helpless I felt despite being literally surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people.