By William Harms

(Note: this short piece was originally published in 1998, in Radar: Ethics & Technology Review, a publication that no longer exists. It was written in response to “A Laser in My Pocket.”)

Dear Siskel:

In the part of Orange County I used to live in, they too figured out innovations in grassroots norms enforcement. Folks there were very worried about their property values and worried that old and/or dirty cars made their neighbourhoods look bad. So owners of unwashed cars would find anonymous notes under their windshields wipers suggesting that the cars be washed. The effect of this innovation in communication was usually the opposite of that intended. The dirty car owners just got pissed off and left the cars dirty. Anonymous mechanisms of “grassroots” norms enforcement seem to create animosity.

Your nifty LaserPhaser is also anonymous in the way that appeals to weenies and busybodies – people who want to affect the behavior of those around them but don’t want to own up to it. Add that to the general attitude of the folks who would actually go out and upgrade their RADAR detectors to LIDAR detectors, and I don’t see that this kind of thing is actually going to get anyone talking to anyone. The speed-trap avoiders are just going to get pissed off and order better LIDAR detectors, and the weenies with the LaserPhasers will hide behind parked cars and run away when they are spotted. The only ones that win are the LIDAR detector manufacturers.
And by the way, and how effective do you actually think this is going to be at getting traffic to slow down? That depends on how many people have LIDAR detectors, and whether they drive measurably slower when they turn the things off (which is what they will do while the new model is on order). My guess is that the driving population  will get used to this sort of thing rather quickly, and traffic will go back to normal.

So, bottom line, this thing is a nuisance at best. At worst, it will come between people and make the LIDAR manufacturers rich off the arms race (not to mention the LaserPhaser manufacturers. I’m thinking of going into the business). In the end nothing will change. If you want to slow down traffic, install speed bumps.

Yours, Ebert

William Harms, University of British Columbia, December 1998