"We drive faster and faster into the future, trying to steer ourselves using only the rearview mirror." This phrase from the communicologist Marshall McLuhan explains many of the mistakes we make when we devise new things. What the great communication theorist wanted to say is that we tend to let the baggage of the past condition the way we think about the future. From his point of view, the best way to move forward is to break with what ties us to past times. That is happening to him, in some aspects of the technology to the European Union.
The European Parliament has just approved a regulation that calls for "designing portable batteries in devices so that consumers themselves can easily remove and replace them." This legislation is based on the memory of the past, twenty years ago, when you could lift the plastic cover of a mobile and change the battery. The Nokia 3310, for example, was practically indestructible and its autonomy seemed inexhaustible, but it did not have even a minimum part of the technologies of current smartphones.
Personally, I don't need to be able to change the battery if it dies in a few years, because today's phones have so much more than just a plastic cover, like water-resistance sealing or wireless charging that many have. What European legislation should guarantee is that, if the battery loses its effectiveness in a certain number of years –let's say five–, the manufacturer must replace it free of charge.
I understand that some people feel nostalgic for a time when everything was easier, like buying a battery at the corner store and putting it in your phone in seconds. Try today to use one of those mobiles without data or apps. When they want to take a photo, send a watsap or consult a map, –among many other things– they will realize that going back is an exercise that means losing things.
It is true that with the old mobiles we did not suffer from some of the problems that the misuse that we give to smartphones today has created for us, but that is not the fault of the devices. We are the ones who complicate our lives. I also miss my old ZX Spectrum computer (1982), with its annoying rubber keys and software loading via cassette, but to be honest, the computer I like the most is the modern one I use today: very fast, with multimedia capabilities and connected to the internet.
Europe is a beacon for the whole world. Despite all the problems that beset their democracies, freedom and rights continue to be protected as in few other places, although sometimes we drive looking in the mirror. Looking to the past to design the future does not seem like a good idea.
