Kyle, I know what you mean about how these technologies would have impacted our lives had they not been around, but the scope of that argument is just too massive to even contemplate discussing! So I had to take each of these technologies in isolation, assuming our world had got by without them.

Michele, you make a compelling argument for leaf blowers, that’s for sure! However, as much of a problem as they might be, they’re not a global problem, or one that severely impacts the environment.

Guys on dirt bikes vastly out number leaf blowers, and dirt bikes are just recreational. So on the balance of priorities, they’d have to go first.

Henry, for the longest time, cigarettes were on this list. But I removed them because they’re a habit and not strictly a technology. But I totally agree.

Thanks for your contributions, guys!

My item to ban - leaf blowers! Our neighbors seem to think they need a gas-powered, mechanized stick to sweep their driveways. Every summer, in our otherwise quiet neighborhood, the peace and tranquility of living in the mountains is interrupted by ennnnnnnguuuuuuuuguuuuu. For hours, it’s ennnnguguguugeeee. Then just when you think it’s finally going to stop, someone else decides there’s a leaf in their driveway that needs to be blown down into the street.

I say, save the planet and buy a damn broom!

Oh, and for that other time of the year folks seem to need leaf blowers - there’s another non-gas guzzling stick for that too - it’s called a rake!

Trust me, I’m not exaggerating here. We watched one day as one, otherwise seemingly intelligent fellow spent 10 minutes with his leaf blower pushing a single leaf down his driveway. And as if this doesn’t drive me crazy enough, as I’m typing this, someone has just launched their gas-guzzling, mechanized stick. Gee, there must be a twig in their driveway.

1. No combustion engine we might still be riding horses or bikes. I’m sure something else would have come along but traveling the world wouldn’t be what it is today.
2. Food additives don’t really know a bunch about them, but do they assist in allowing us to mass produce food to feed the world? Maybe make food we wouldn’t otherwise eat tasty? Or maybe they are only good for making junkfood? Someone call me out on this one…
3. No nuclear power no nuclear bomb and maybe we are still fighting World War II or not able to meet the energy needs of a modern world. Are you willing to give up half your luxuries to find more expensive alternative forms of energy?
4. Other better packaging materials but more expensive to produce.
5. No libraries and fewer people have the ability to educate themselves and possibly few technological breakthroughs.

Now on ethics you are totally right on all these (except 5) but you have to look at the bigger picture and how these things have impacted our lives. If there were more affordable methods to power transportation at the time I’m sure they would have used them. Face it humans are greedy and our needs/interest commonly outweigh those of the environment and I think that’s what is the real issue with each of these.

Bottom line without these advances (yes including 2 and 5) we aren’t as advanced a civilization as we are today. Is that something your willing to give up?

And ban the guy who called me a geek when I said I liked computers and then went on to name every F.A. Cup winner for the last thirty years … :^D

As for banning the beautiful game, thee & me will be having words!

Nick, banning the internet, eh? Yes, makes perfect sense, in the context of banning libraries.

With disruptive technologies like the internet, they often force people to think differently about how they do things. In this case, I think we’ll look back on this period in history as being important, principally for forcing much needed change on the world…

Personally, I think they’d probably ban the internet for the same reasons your colleague stated about libraries. Big corporations (particularly in the entertainment and media sectors) must be gnashing their teeth at the amount of ‘lost sales’ because of the internet. Whether that be through the freedom of information (newspaper sales, book sales, print advertising, etc.) or the amount of file-sharing going on, they must be ruing the day Tim Berners-Lee invented http://WWW. Sure, they’re adapting and still raking it in, but all that leakage must be giving them indigestion of a night. The poor lambs!

And I’d never heard about that nuclear reactor stuff in Africa — that’s amazing, seriously. Although I did laugh when I read “Plutonium has moved less than 10 feet from where it was formed almost two billion years ago” … even I’m not that slow!

(On a personal note: I’d ban football.)