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I want to give you the benefit of the doubt here, in what way did the ban on cellphones on planes stall progress? It seemed more like a minor annoyance / inconv
by isoskeles 8y ago
I want to give you the benefit of the doubt here, in what way did the ban on cellphones on planes stall progress? It seemed more like a minor annoyance / inconvenience, but I could be misunderstanding or not have context.
- quotemstr 8y agoOne thing: it's become increasingly common to ditch in-seat entertainment units and just have people watch airline-provided entertainment on their own devices over wifi. This approach saves weight and money. Would it have been viable if electronic devices were still banned during takeoff? Regardless, utility matters. This argument from frivolity --- that we shouldn't allow thing X that has rare side effect Y because X is just a "toy" --- is dangerous, because everything in modern civilization, from the right perspective, is frivolous. The whole point of technology is to make life easier, so it's not fair to argue against thing X merely because thing X exists to make life easier. Everything we really needed for survival was invented a long, long time ago.
- mikeash 8y agoPersonal devices were taking over from built in entertainment units long before the ban was lifted on portable electronic use below 10,000ft. Having an extra 20 minutes to use your own device doesn’t make that much of a difference.