Scared of the New

There is a delicious irony in the Uk public complaining about Google street view invading their privacy then inviting tv cameras in unrestricted to report on it as Ed Parsons edparsons.com notes.

So why the fuss? IMHO it's down to evolutionary psychology. We're programmed to be scared of new things we've not come across. Back a million years ago if a new threat (such as new people moving into your area) appeared the sensible thing was to me scared of it until experience proved it safe. Strangers often carry big sticks. The difference today is that you'd hope education would allow a more considered view.

So we can expect all sorts of knee jerk reactions to google street view on the news whilst the laudable RE>C campaign by Google.org remains unremarked.

-- From My iPhone