[LINK] No cash for phone alert system

[Lea de Groot]

On 17/02/2009, at 10:54 AM, Ivan Trundle wrote:

> What I do advocate is that any technology 'solution' is no solution at
> all. I predict that for the next 50 years or more, fires will still
> catch people out, and we will still not have sufficient resources to
> fight all but the smallest of fires, and we will still be calling for
> 'enhanced communication' which will only work fitfully in such
> circumstances.

In a utopian vision there is a solution
(Everyone is entitled to 'kit' which gives them a headset, attached by  
an advanced communication system[1] to a base system which has an AI  
capable of interpreting speech. People are able to report on an area  
'this road closed', 'fire 300m from here. moving fast NNE' and the  
central system would be able to determine exactly what is happening  
where and feedback through the kit to the people in locations who need  
that information, is my 30 second guess at a workable and useful  
system ;))
But I agree - less than 50 years? Unlikely.
Even if the technical issues were achievable on a reasonable budget,  
we still haven't got past the big brother and privacy issues.

And - we need to accept that we will never have zero losses from major  
calamities - not until we have weather control so that we don't have  
such calamities.
We can only aim for loss minimisation, so we only lose a small amount  
of people and property.

Lea
[1] Avoiding the issue of 'what is a reliable way to stay in contact  
that won't give me brain cancer?' ;)