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Originally Posted by jbjb
One thing that really does irritate me though is the number of people who feel able to claim with certainty that these devices won't cause a problem.
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Your agument is sound, in that most people have little or no relevant information for their claims as to the safety of their gadgets.
On the other hand, I think the argument that these devices should be turned off because they
might have an adverse effect on the plane is flawed - for pretty much the same reason you said, that there is no real statistical evidence that they are dangerous. I mean, there is an infinite number of things that
could have an impact on airplane. It is
possible that an electromagnetic emanations from your notebook ro reader will affect electronic components of the plane enough to put it into danger. But it is also possible that, say, bacteria living on your skin will be affected by your neighbor's aftershave in such an unfortunate way that they will mutate into plastic-eating species that will cause significant parts of the plane to disintegrate.
The point is, we should focus on
known risks, and if we have enough free resources, on
highly probable possibilities. There is little point in guarding against everything that could conceivably happen (killing all butterflies because they might, through a series of freak accidents, cause a plane to fall).
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Why do those with *no* expertise feel able to do so?
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I don't know about other people. I know about me:
Because, to the best of my knowledge, there has been no case ever where a running notebook caused any problems.
Because there have, historically, been many cases where we had such limitations for no good purpose at all (as revealed by later research).
Because the focus on
perceived (not necessarily
real) security is so insanely, absurdly overblown these days, that even reasonable precautions will look suspect unless reasonably explained.
If you want me to behave in a certain way, you need to give me better reasons than "it is possible".