Lori Rasmussen

Tuesday night’s ICC 602 class was a fairly sobering reminder of the risks involved in over-reliance on tech. To be sure, the students in the Communications@Syracuse program would not even be able to pursue these academic endeavors without the digital platform we have available to us – so I’m certainly not arguing against the tech that enables our education. On the other hand, when a system crashes it can be a very frustrating experience, especially in the event there is no backup option and class must simply be cancelled.

Luckily for us, it’s not catastrophic that class was cancelled; it was merely an inconvenience. However, let’s consider the potential consequences of the failure of, say, an electronic balloting system. If such a system were to go offline – or worse, be tampered with – during a major election, it could disenfranchise voters. This situation might actually place an un-elected person in office. I don’t think it’s a stretch to argue that such an event might actually threaten our democracy. It would certainly shake confidence in our institutions and faith in our ideals. If we consider these risks, should we forsake the convenience of modern, computerized election systems for old-school paper ballots? We are beginning to see these questions asked.

As much as anyone, I will admit to having fully embraced a tech-friendly lifestyle. But for reasons just like this week’s class cancellation and many, many others, we would all do well to avoid a future in which there is no analog backup in the event of digital failure. In short, we must ensure that tech is our servant rather than our master.