The first (harm) is about as mild as it gets, and the second is a common usage. Webster's 1913: > 2. Injury done to that which is entitled to respect, reveren

The first (harm) is about as mild as it gets, and the second is a common usage. Webster's 1913: > 2. Injury done to that which is entitled to respect, reverence, or observance; profanation; infringement; unjust force; outrage; assault. > We can not, without offering violence to all records, divine and human, deny an universal deluge. - T. Burnet. It's a bit more poetic a use, but it's not escalatory in the way you suggest. [EDIT] Further, my point is (and I think that was clear?) that computerization necessarily does these things if you treat the computer as correct and humans as suspect, not that anyone's doing this on purpose.