Technology and regulation – publico

                 

                         
                     

                 

 
                         

The technology affects human behavior. Is not additive: it is modifying. Am I not more additional capabilities that the machine or the app provide me. I’m a different. And the difference is not always for the better.

                     

                          We all know composed and judicious people, a door, always give way, but in an intersection, and a steering wheel in hand, they assert their rights of way to the millimeter. And the severity of accidents that result here is a direct link between this legalistic intolerance multiplied by the power of technology.

From the observation of this relationship, Hans Monderman (1945-2008), a traffic engineer, took a revolutionary conclusion: given that the technology will not disappear, to make streets and roads safer is necessary to reduce the illusion that my right supersedes the rights of others and the reality of the situation. Monderman could have turned to Christ and to the Gospel, but chose a parallel track. If the prohibitions and limits give illusion of security, they end up with, or at least reduce to a minimum. In the cities and villages of Friesland in the Netherlands, took Monderman signs, traffic lights, and even the track demarcation lines. Where could even eliminated the physical boundaries between space for pedestrians and space for vehicles. All this resulted in an increase in ambiguity and uncertainty. And the result was a change of behavior: more careful conduct individually, collectively increased cooperation, and the consequent drastic reduction of accidents. A study by the Transport Research Laboratory-UK found that only the elimination of the separating lines of lanes reduced accidents by 35%.

Not that Monderman was against all signs and rules. He realized that a tight turn signal indicator fulfills a function. Understand is that signs and excess rules close drivers in their rights and make them more aggressive in his driving, and therefore its use should be limited and be more informative than prescriptive.

Something similar goes on in other areas of human activity: rules and algorithms DISCLAIM who should be more prudent. In statements made in connection with investigations to financial scandals, wherever it is, there is one constant: everyone was to comply with regulations or orders of regulators, and the blame or is the system or computers. In financial regulation we need more Monderman and less Sarbanes-Oxley, more judgment and fewer rules.

Professor of Finance, AESE