examples of technologies or social institutions that are "stuck"
March 9, 2015 6:52 AM
HIVEMIND! Does anyone know of any examples of technologies or social institutions that are "stuck" at some sub-optimal state, where we recognize that there are better alternatives out there, but everyone is just used to the current situation and coordinating a huge shift is just too difficult? The clearest example I can think of is having the Qwerty keyboard instead of the Dvorak, where we know that one is better but instituting it would require massive coordination and huge startup costs.
For many companies, IBM [Lotus] Notes.
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posted by functionequalsform at 6:58 AM on March 9, 2015
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posted by functionequalsform at 6:58 AM on March 9, 2015
Income tax. Healthcare. The DMV. Onlone banking. Password security standards. Daylight savings.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:59 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by DarlingBri at 6:59 AM on March 9, 2015
Upgrading US roads/bridges
Renewable energy/solar & wind power
posted by vitabellosi at 7:14 AM on March 9, 2015
Renewable energy/solar & wind power
posted by vitabellosi at 7:14 AM on March 9, 2015
AM and FM Radio. With the advent of HD Radio there really is no need for either traditional AM or FM. They did away with analog TV, but it took ten years and a huge government subsidy.
posted by Gungho at 7:15 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by Gungho at 7:15 AM on March 9, 2015
Word?
posted by kisch mokusch at 7:15 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by kisch mokusch at 7:15 AM on March 9, 2015
Planet Money did a piece on why it takes days to send money between US banks.
posted by mmascolino at 7:17 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by mmascolino at 7:17 AM on March 9, 2015
wasn't this asked a few weeks ago?
I seem to recall that the way airline flight systems work is supremely antiquated but the time it would take to switch to something new would be devastating and bring all air traffic to a halt.
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:18 AM on March 9, 2015
I seem to recall that the way airline flight systems work is supremely antiquated but the time it would take to switch to something new would be devastating and bring all air traffic to a halt.
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:18 AM on March 9, 2015
FIFA? The IOC?
Many of these are instances of the phenomenon called path dependence.
posted by XMLicious at 7:28 AM on March 9, 2015
Many of these are instances of the phenomenon called path dependence.
posted by XMLicious at 7:28 AM on March 9, 2015
The U.S. Senate.
posted by Jasper Fnorde at 7:29 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by Jasper Fnorde at 7:29 AM on March 9, 2015
You're looking at the concept of "lock-in". The Wikipedia article uses a vocabulary that seems focused on "projects", but as you can see from the above examples, many technologies have taken hold at a scope well beyond "project", so that (say) replacing them could comprise multiple projects with myriad stakeholders.
To Hermione Granger's point above, a complicating factor for many of these is that one person's "supremely antiquated" is another person's "simple and powerful". SAABRE is a great example because its text interface looks ancient to people used to working with GUIs, but for the plurality of its users, its shortcomings (ugliness) are overcome by its positive attributes (easily-keyed workflows, display that requires very limited processing power.)
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:33 AM on March 9, 2015
To Hermione Granger's point above, a complicating factor for many of these is that one person's "supremely antiquated" is another person's "simple and powerful". SAABRE is a great example because its text interface looks ancient to people used to working with GUIs, but for the plurality of its users, its shortcomings (ugliness) are overcome by its positive attributes (easily-keyed workflows, display that requires very limited processing power.)
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:33 AM on March 9, 2015
Internet Explorer is terrible as a browser, but also locked in heavily to tens of thousands of huge companies due to IT decisions made a decade or more ago.
I seem to recall that the way airline flight systems work is supremely antiquated but the time it would take to switch to something new would be devastating and bring all air traffic to a halt.
Yep, the backbone systems for booking in the US (called SABRE) have components that were built in 1960. There's a great comment in that thread from a consultant in the industry who says it's not unusual to come across thirty year old code comments saying "I'll fix this later", by programmers who are probably now dead.
posted by Happy Dave at 7:44 AM on March 9, 2015
I seem to recall that the way airline flight systems work is supremely antiquated but the time it would take to switch to something new would be devastating and bring all air traffic to a halt.
Yep, the backbone systems for booking in the US (called SABRE) have components that were built in 1960. There's a great comment in that thread from a consultant in the industry who says it's not unusual to come across thirty year old code comments saying "I'll fix this later", by programmers who are probably now dead.
posted by Happy Dave at 7:44 AM on March 9, 2015
A lot of banks and other institutions invested heavily on integrating web and web-like technologies in the mid-2000s around the time IE6 was still at its peak. Unfortunately, banks have this habit of investing in major projects exactly once with no thought to upgrades or future maintenance. As a result, web developers are stuck building two versions of the same web app: one that works for modern browsers and hardware, and one that works for the dinosaurs that refuse to evolve.
posted by surazal at 7:51 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by surazal at 7:51 AM on March 9, 2015
The telecommunications industry in the United States.
posted by incolorinred at 7:55 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by incolorinred at 7:55 AM on March 9, 2015
Magnetic swiping on credit cards rather than chip and pin? At least in the US.
posted by Liesl at 8:03 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by Liesl at 8:03 AM on March 9, 2015
duplicate paper delivery slips (BOLs) in the trucking and delivery industry.
posted by WeekendJen at 8:18 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by WeekendJen at 8:18 AM on March 9, 2015
Pretty much everything about Social Security numbers; most notably the fact that they're used both as a semi-public ID number and as a super-secret password that's necessary to apply for credit in your name. These are obviously mutually contradictory and very different from the original point of the SSN program, but at this point it's too entrenched to ever change.
posted by Itaxpica at 8:54 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by Itaxpica at 8:54 AM on March 9, 2015
Our power generation system. Moving to clean/renewable energy is as massive an undertaking as there is and it won't happen in our lifetime. We'd be lucky if if it happens within the lifetimes of anyone who will even have known us.
posted by JimBJ9 at 9:11 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by JimBJ9 at 9:11 AM on March 9, 2015
Chip-and-PIN is coming to the US in 2015, and the USA's air-traffic control system is being updated slowly, so those probably don't count.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:14 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:14 AM on March 9, 2015
The medical industry still relies on fax machines to a comical extent. Most offices will not allow you to send in a form to by either e-mail or by uploading to your "online chart." You have to dust off a fax machine and send it in by paper.
posted by AgentRocket at 9:18 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by AgentRocket at 9:18 AM on March 9, 2015
Speaking of ATC articles like this recent Slate bemoan the antiquated HOST system but that's actually been under replacemnt for several years, and that replacement (with ERAM) is now complete. Other aspect of air traffic control remain 'stuck' however.
posted by Rash at 9:19 AM on March 9, 2015
posted by Rash at 9:19 AM on March 9, 2015
I must say there's an awful lot of wishful thinking and conventional/received wisdom involved in the assumption that some current mode or method is "sub-optimal" and that we know that some unused alternative is better.
Proof about Dvorak keyboards for example is pretty thin on the ground, while the unexamined repetition of received wisdom and anecdata on that point is all but universal.
For your consideration.
= = =
A better example might be the slow pace of adoption of electronic medical records by the so-called health-care industry.
In the 1980s one could find a used auto part out-of-state using a nationwide system of linked online inventories shared by junk-yards, while hospitals and physicians offices were still using paper. Until just a few years ago -- while junkyards had moved on to the Internet -- medical records were still almost entirely paper-based. One study showed that up to 40% of "chart pulls" resulted in wrong or missing information being provided. A lot of this has/had to do with the stated preferences of individual physicians.
This situation is changing slowly, but a patient is just as likely as not to be asked to hand-carry their own x-rays to the specialist for consultation, instead of finding that they've been sent electronically. Here's a case where there is no imaginary technological Goliath blocking market access to the superior David; no VHS, no QWERTY, no Windows. The strongest competitor to any particular EMR offering is -- paper.
= = =
Here's a more complex and obscure one for you.
In medieval Europe various vernacular languages arose, tied to geography. But educated people learned Latin and used it to communicate with other educated people, regardless of geography. Class distinctions, a problem yeah? but not because of Latin. Having a common language over a wide area and across political boundaries seems like a pretty good thing. To have.
As we know, the printing press and (relatively) inexpensive dissemination of the written word changed everything; democratized literacy, facilitated the expansion of the middle class and social mobility. No downside, from modern sensibility, yeah?
Unfortunately, the printing press arrived just in time for the advent of geography-based nationalism -- which facilitated the growth of / attachment to local language vernaculars.
The rising middle class of Europe could all have acquired literacy in a common written language, Latin, just like the elites. But it was not to be. Eventually, Latin lost its status as lingua franca and Europeans were simultanously held together and kept apart by language. An historical missed opportunity.
posted by Herodios at 10:04 AM on March 9, 2015
Proof about Dvorak keyboards for example is pretty thin on the ground, while the unexamined repetition of received wisdom and anecdata on that point is all but universal.
For your consideration.
= = =
A better example might be the slow pace of adoption of electronic medical records by the so-called health-care industry.
In the 1980s one could find a used auto part out-of-state using a nationwide system of linked online inventories shared by junk-yards, while hospitals and physicians offices were still using paper. Until just a few years ago -- while junkyards had moved on to the Internet -- medical records were still almost entirely paper-based. One study showed that up to 40% of "chart pulls" resulted in wrong or missing information being provided. A lot of this has/had to do with the stated preferences of individual physicians.
This situation is changing slowly, but a patient is just as likely as not to be asked to hand-carry their own x-rays to the specialist for consultation, instead of finding that they've been sent electronically. Here's a case where there is no imaginary technological Goliath blocking market access to the superior David; no VHS, no QWERTY, no Windows. The strongest competitor to any particular EMR offering is -- paper.
= = =
Here's a more complex and obscure one for you.
In medieval Europe various vernacular languages arose, tied to geography. But educated people learned Latin and used it to communicate with other educated people, regardless of geography. Class distinctions, a problem yeah? but not because of Latin. Having a common language over a wide area and across political boundaries seems like a pretty good thing. To have.
As we know, the printing press and (relatively) inexpensive dissemination of the written word changed everything; democratized literacy, facilitated the expansion of the middle class and social mobility. No downside, from modern sensibility, yeah?
Unfortunately, the printing press arrived just in time for the advent of geography-based nationalism -- which facilitated the growth of / attachment to local language vernaculars.
The rising middle class of Europe could all have acquired literacy in a common written language, Latin, just like the elites. But it was not to be. Eventually, Latin lost its status as lingua franca and Europeans were simultanously held together and kept apart by language. An historical missed opportunity.
posted by Herodios at 10:04 AM on March 9, 2015
Daylight Savings Time.
Also, we keep making pennies. (yes I may have been binge-watching The West Wing recently.)
posted by softlord at 12:32 PM on March 9, 2015
Also, we keep making pennies. (yes I may have been binge-watching The West Wing recently.)
posted by softlord at 12:32 PM on March 9, 2015
Capitalism.
posted by natteringnabob at 12:45 PM on March 9, 2015
posted by natteringnabob at 12:45 PM on March 9, 2015
Major-league baseball is instituting new rules to speed up the pace of play. Not to change the nature of the game, just the length of time it takes to play an average game. All recent attempts to do this have met criticism because baseball is traditionally a sport without a timer -- games take as long as they need to take. But with games growing ever-longer, the concern is that fans are simply tuning out.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:56 PM on March 9, 2015
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:56 PM on March 9, 2015
Does the way universities operate in North America count? I find the set-up is designed to accommodate wealthy students of leisure (who don't need to worry about also working part / full time to pay bills, or how to raise a family with limited time) and the structure has not changed to meet modern needs - especially for parents! I also am turned off by how easily graduate students are taken advantage of to provide TA services at miserable wages no one can realistically survive on without massive loans or rich parents / partners. Some of these TAs work themselves to the bone but are not properly trained to teach, are overwhelmed with huge classes / grading, are forced to TA courses that aren't quite their specialty, and even get taken advantage of by the profs in charge - on top of their studies and trying to live adult lives outside class. Assistant profs also face similar challenges with equally ridiculous pay. But what can they say that won't get them blackballed from their niche area? The system assumes they live in a world where they can devote themselves 100% to learning but realistically only the wealthiest, genius or not, can do so. Furthermore, I hate how these universities unofficially insist the TAs and assistant profs lower in status must pass people who really should fail just to make the class average look good. Basically, even beyond the whole student loan nightmare, the university system seems broken as it is stuck in the 19th century.
posted by partly squamous and partly rugose at 4:01 PM on March 9, 2015
posted by partly squamous and partly rugose at 4:01 PM on March 9, 2015
As I understand it, rocket technology is a commonly-cited example of this phenomenon.
You can read a little more about it here: http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-major-barriers-to-growth-in-commercial-spaceflight
posted by piato at 4:25 PM on March 9, 2015
You can read a little more about it here: http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-major-barriers-to-growth-in-commercial-spaceflight
posted by piato at 4:25 PM on March 9, 2015
Chip-and-PIN is coming to the US in 2015
But the size of credit card stays the same, which seems sub-optimal. The SIM cards in phones used to be the size of credit cards, but because backwards-compatibility was not an issue they were able to shrink them gradually. So in one pocket we now have a slim phone with a nano-SIM, but in the other pocket there is still a fat old wallet with credit card-sized credit cards.
posted by Herr Zebrurka at 8:14 AM on March 11, 2015
But the size of credit card stays the same, which seems sub-optimal. The SIM cards in phones used to be the size of credit cards, but because backwards-compatibility was not an issue they were able to shrink them gradually. So in one pocket we now have a slim phone with a nano-SIM, but in the other pocket there is still a fat old wallet with credit card-sized credit cards.
posted by Herr Zebrurka at 8:14 AM on March 11, 2015
microfilm! we're digitizing stuff now, but there's still squillions of archival documents we will still have to squint at on those janky 1970s machines for a long time to come.
posted by idlethink at 7:12 AM on March 14, 2015
posted by idlethink at 7:12 AM on March 14, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by wingless_angel at 6:56 AM on March 9, 2015