Using Technology To Enforce Good Behavior

Ismellpoop writes "With the new year upon us and resolutions being made to change unwanted behavior, many tools are now available to help people stay in line, such as a GPS-enabled app that locks down texting once a car gets rolling and a program that cuts off credit-card spending. Another device monitors your workout and offers real-time voice feedback. Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?"

Comments

How is this any different than my alarm clock?

[h4rr4r]

How is this any different than my alarm clock?

Is it my mother because it wakes me?

Re:How is this any different than my alarm clock?

[Anonymous Coward]

What is this 'alarm clock' app you speak of? The iPhone doesn't appear to have such a thing.

The blurb misses something in the proposition.

[Seumas]

Have we entered an era in which electronics serve as mother, cop and coach because we can't manage our own desires?

If you're the one setting up these utilities for yourself, then you are managing your own desires.

Re:The blurb misses something in the proposition.

[spun]

I refuse to let anyone tell me what to do, especially past-me. Who does that fucker think he was, making decisions for me? When he told our wife "I'll pick up groceries on the way home," did he have any idea how tired I would be after work? No, and he didn't care, because it's not him picking up the groceries, he is gone, he is only a shadow of the past, and I am the one who has to pick up the groceries. Well, fuck it. It's not like I'm hungry now. If future me gets hungry, he can get his own damn food. But knowing him, he'll blame me for not getting it for him now, the sanctimonious prick.

Re:Flamebait!

[Yvan256]

Flamebait question. Computers? Being used to automate things? STOP THE PRESSES!

We can't! They're automated too!

Re:Cel phone jammers!

[tophermeyer]

how do you feel about the woman further down trying to connect with her kid, or the doctor trying to manage prescriptions, or the 10 quiet business people just trying to check their email. You fucked up their connections as well.

Not to mention anyone else not on the train but still in range of the signal. Running one of those things on a bus or subway is like setting up a big mobile bubble of "fuck you" for everyone in the city.

As gratifying as it might be to dickishly and anonymously kill their signal, the grown up thing to do would be to simply ask the person to pipe down. If the GP is so socially backwards that he can't even manage that, I humbly suggest that he does not belong on public transportation.

Re:Cel phone jammers!

[Nyder]

I own two cel phone jammers. I have been trapped in too many inescapable situations (bus, train, lines, etc) with somebody having a loud and/or annoying conversation near me that even my headphones cannot drown out. I jam their cel phone signal and shut them the hell up. And I feel good about it, too. I'm like a secret superhero to everyone else within earshot.

I use a P20B jammer, which seems to jam most ATT, T-Mobile, and Verizon phones. It isn't 100% effective - Cricket and MetroPCS seem to to completely immune, not sure about Sprint/Nextel, and Alltel doesn't exist in my area. I recommend it for just about everybody.* If anyone knows of a jammer that ALSO works on those other carriers, I'd love to know about it.

* May not be legal in your jurisdiction.

I have to say, your pretty rude.

I own a mp3 player. I use it to drown out conversations, peeps on cell phones, teenagers who think that the whole bus cares about the convo they are having with the kid sitting next to them, so on. I don't step on anyone's rights listening to my mp3 player, I don't keep people from making or receiving calls.

While I understand the usefulness of a cell phone jammer, I can't see using it because you find peeps on cell phone's annoying. Grow a backbone, learn to ignore, or get a mp3 player.

Ya, i'll get off your lawn, you probably about to let an emp loose anyways.