Begin forwarded message: From: Rahul Tongia <tongia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: June 10, 2005 9:54:54 AM EDT To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [IP] Question authority! Dave,While questioning authority appeals to the rebel in all of us, and may have been very useful in this particular case, is this not an argument for authorities to improve in what they instruct? They need better technology, information, and innovation, instead of spewing conventional wisdom, if not old wives' tales. Worse, what happens if disobeying authority works nicely for a single individual, but doesn't scale, backfires, or fails if everyone tries to do it? This is exactly the game theoretic condition where standard responses and predictabilty can be useful.
However, if the authorities simply tell you to use a lot of duct tape... Rahul--On Friday, June 10, 2005 9:04 AM -0400 David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Begin forwarded message: From: radev@xxxxxxxxx Date: June 9, 2005 6:20:47 PM EDT To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Question authority! Reply-To: radev@xxxxxxxxx Might be interesting for IP. Rather controversial too. Dragohttp://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.06/start.html?pg=3 Question Authorities Why it's smart to disobey officials in emergencies For nearly four years - steadily, seriously, and with theunsentimental rigor for which we love them - civil engineers have been studying the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, sifting thetragedy for its lessons. And it turns out that one of the lessons is: Disobey authority. In a connected world, ordinary people often have access to better information than officials do.Proof can be found in the 298-page draft report issued in April by theNational Institute on Standards and Technology called Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications. (In layman's terms, that's who got out of the buildings, how they got out, and why.) It's an eloquent document, in many ways. The report confirms a chilling fact that was widely covered in the aftermath of the September 11attacks. After both buildings were burning, many calls to 911 resultedin advice to stay put and wait for rescue. Also, occupants of the towers had been trained to use the stairs, not the elevators, in case of evacuation. Fortunately, this advice was mostly ignored. According to the engineers, use of elevators in the early phase of the evacuation, along with the decision to not stay put, saved roughly 2,500 lives. ...------------------------------------- You are subscribed as tongia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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