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Comment by titzer | Hacker News Reader

> Or how about this? > Or how about this? > Don't act like cellphones have no practical use

sigh Humans have survived for hundreds of thousands of years without cellphones. For any new tech, you can continually imagine scenarios where survival "absolutely depends on" having this tech.

How about this? You're sitting in your ISS sleep capsule and suddenly the station starts to depressurize. You hop into your reentry-safe spacesuit and exit the station, set the suit to auto-reentry and then aero-brake from Mach 18 to 0 and touch down safely in your backyard with your parachute. See? A reentry safe single-person spacesuit is absolute essential to survival.

Your example is that you pass out at a concert with literally thousands of people around and no one helps you. Or you are drunk and a guy is hitting on you. Or your kid is missing.

And you call the person you are responding to ridiculous.

Cellphones have made people into helpless, scared sheep.

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I find this argument supremely unconvincing. It’s true that humanity survived, but people died in all sorts of awful and now preventable ways. This argument could be used to argue against vaccines, sanitation, or good nutrition. Is that where you want to be?

When it comes to safety, I want to set the bar somewhat above “this will not literally drive the species to extinction.”

Thank you.

sigh, you are not the Human race. Yes, Humans as a race have survived without cellphones, but that doesn't mean for an instance that the same applies to individuals.

You can't simply brush aside the parent's comments because you don't agree with them. A potential rape situation, or a lost and frightened child are very valid, and very real examples of how having a phone could help.

> Cellphones have made people into helpless, scared sheep.

You realise that people can be scared and helpless without being sheep, right? You also realise that simply being able to contact someone can remove the fear and helpnessness?

> You can't simply brush aside the parent's comments because you don't agree with them. A potential rape situation, or a lost and frightened child are very valid, and very real examples of how having a phone could help.

A lot of things could help too. Like a gun or an epipen. My point is that cellphones have become people's #1 indispensable safety blankets to the point that being without fills them with fear. Why are we so afraid of everything? If you've got ID, keys, and a little bit of money, you're mostly golden. And even taking away one or all of those, you won't die instantly.

> You realise that people can be scared and helpless without being sheep, right?

The fact that people become so uncomfortable and literally afraid when they are separated from their devices that didn't even exist 10-15 years ago is not a good sign.

I wish everyone would just stop pedaling fear like this. You'll be fine without your phone for a few minutes. There aren't rapists, terrorists around every corner; aliens aren't abducting people, and you probably aren't going to have a brain aneurysm and be unable to call for help.

The last thing you want to do, when treathened in a crowded place, is to try to text someone. You either fight back or ask loudly for help.

There should be some sort of public phone that people can use, perhaps in booth format. Or maybe some sort of minimal electronic device where text messages can be passed, where you could, in essence, 'page' someone. Hmmm.

Please don't troll.

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