In a review of The Encyclopaedia of Stupidity, Stephen Bayley quotes some ironic “stupidities”:
In his promising, but Murphily exasperating, new book, Matthijs van Boxsel has a brilliant list of how technology makes us stupid. It includes these gems:
- energy-saving lightbulbs are mostly employed for decorative use in gardens
- zebra crossings [crosswalks] increase pedestrian accidents
- many tanning lotions contain carcinogens
- air-conditioning promotes the greenhouse effect
- computers vastly increase the consumption of paper
- better hygiene creates susceptibility to bacteria.
To which I can add a personal favourite. More pilots have been killed learning how to crash-land helicopters than have actually been killed in helicopter crashes.