Technology is a very wonderful thing. Where would we be without the ability to press our payment cards to a screen and just pay for groceries without all that fuss of bits of metal, otherwise known as coins?
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Now we know. We would be in chaos. The technological revolution of the last two decades or so has brought great benefits - but when it goes wrong, it goes very wrong.
The meltdown should be a warning. We have become used to glitches in systems, often minor ones cured by the usual "turn-it-off and-turn-it-back-on" advice).
But we may have got complacent, perhaps since that midnight when the old millennium turned into the new one.
For months before, there had been warnings of a dangerous "millenium bug", sleeping in computer systems, only waiting to be called into life exactly when the year turned. Its non-existence may have lulled us into trusting technology too much.
But the disruption to banks, supermarkets and media companies should make us think again.
The "blue screen of death", as the blank screens across the planet were dubbed, should shake us out of complacency.
When nerdy men with brains and egos the size of the planet sing the praises of driverless cars, let's say, we lesser mortals should hold back a little.
![Technology is fantastic. But it's not perfect. Picture Shutterstock Technology is fantastic. But it's not perfect. Picture Shutterstock](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/RXMuw2JbrrS7ELSxSY9rkR/b0e90d3f-97c4-404c-9c0e-a973dea61508.jpg/r0_27_6000_3414_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Apart from the havoc of Friday, there had already been signs of the longer-term downside of much of the marvelous technology we have grown used to.
The internet itself was once hailed as an enhancement to democracy. It would, the enthusiasts shouted, give a voice to everybody.
And it did, including to those who spread falsehoods.
The lesson of Friday is technology should not be allowed too much power. In the era of artificial intelligence, that warning becomes even more true. AI has amazing possibilities, particularly in its ability to develop cures for diseases.
But the experts on it are already warning it could soon have the potential to actually destroy human life on this planet.
Friday's chaos was the result of a human error. But think of the potential for havoc if a hostile nation could devise a similar collapse.
Friday reminds us technology should remain our servant and not become our master.
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