Are we willing and able to work high-tech?

The modern - or so-called e-time - technologies have made our life and work easier and more comfortable. By simply pushing a button or clicking a mouse, we can accomplish almost any feat, from sending an instant message across the globe to navigating a spacecraft in the outer space thousands of miles away, from leaving our laundry to the care of an "all-able" washing-drying machine to keeping a whole rail transport system on schedule.

All these are achieved through smart electronic applications. However, they can be hazardous or even fatal if any glitch occurs.

Last Thursday, a subway train in Shanghai went in "the wrong direction", to Hongqiao instead of its intended destination of Hangzhong. Fortunately no collision occurred. The subway operator explained that the accident was caused by the "clogging of signals during the process of upgrading the CBTC signaling system".