So...technology is everywhere these days. Everywhere you turn, you find yourselves confronted with ever more gadgets for all sorts of purposes -- both beneficial and malevolent. Now, don't get me wrong, I like technology. I'm sitting here typing a blog entry on the Internet, for heaven's sake.
But I do think there's times we go overboard on the technology ideas. Like, for example, here's a suggestion Dave Del Grande makes in his latest column ("No BS, BCS keeps interest up"):
It was reported at the meetings that QuesTec validated 93 percent of all calls on balls and strikes. This was supposed to be a good thing.I look at it this way: Over the course of your average game, the umpire behind the plate made about 20 mistakes. Basic stuff, like deciding if a pitched ball crossed the plate between the knees and numbers.
There would be no mistakes -- none -- if Major League Baseball got into the 21st century and created a magnetic field rising from home plate, tailored to the exact measurements of each hitter.
The ball intersects the zone? Strike. It doesn't? Ball.
Perhaps baseball would consider it ... if half its teams didn't have their hands over their ears.
Now, while the columnist is ranting about the stupidity of major league owners, a point I can understand, I'm more interested in the technological idea encased here. Now, it seems heavenly to have a system proposed like the one above. No more squabbling over balls and strikes -- it simply is or is not. At first glance, it seems like a brilliant idea. More accurate, more fair, easy to use, makes sense...
But baseball is a game of tradition. There are still people who spit upon the designated hitter rule, and that's been de rigour in the American league for over thirty years now. When it comes down to it, who cares that a human umpire might make mistakes? They generally end up balancing out to both teams over the course of a game, and the human umpires are getting it right at a 93% clip, so...why take away the soul of the game for more accuracy?
One could make a similiar argument with voting machines, I suppose. A machine that at first seems brilliant, but then has, if you're thoughtful about the whole process, many flaws in it.
I still need to write my post on stupid pollworker stories, I've just been bouncing between busy and sick, so I'll get to it soon. I promise.
I just wanted to point out that technology isn't the be all end all that some of its promoters would make it out to be.
Posted by katster at November 14, 2004 12:44 AM