While everyone is rightly calling for the Post Office Horizon postmasters’ convictions to be overturned and for them to be given proper compensation, there is arguably a deeper issue at stake: how much society trusts technology.
We now know that the Horizon accounting software was not reliable. But during the sub-postmasters’ original trials, prosecutors for the Post Office argued that it was dependable and the courts took this for granted.
Why did the courts rely on the evidence of such a faulty IT system? The answer is a society-wide problem – with people falling into the trap of thinking computers are infallible. You might think they are no more likely to lie to you than an abacus. But that ignores the fact that computers are programmed by humans, who are just as likely to be as incompetent or lazy as anyone else. This can lead to some terrifying scenarios.
Take the health sector.
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