Positivity And Negativity Among Futel Champions And Detractors

In the early years of Futel, any publicity would draw comments from whiners predicting that the phones would be mainly used by drug dealers and their customers. These interactions are ignorable, of course. Anyone who has actually done anything will be familiar with the swarm of low-effort trolls who emerge to point out the perceived flaws that doom any idea. That’s understandable, the modern world produces many people with unfulfilling, empty lives, and being negative about the efforts of others is the weakest and easiest way to deny that reality.

For the case of drug transactions, however, there is some truth. Futel phones are sometimes used to coordinate the buying and selling of illegal drugs, and probably many other activities which benefit from anonymity.

The relationship between illegality and immorality is not always direct, and there are many illegal activities that we would be glad for Futel phones to facilitate. Obvious examples are easy to imagine, like the arrangement of abortion and other birth control services, or communication assistance for undocumented people. Even buying drugs, meh. Meth and other drugs have seriously harmed many people, and we aren’t happy that our phones could help someone buy or sell meth, but whatever. If someone is addicted to meth, or engaged in the shitty job of directly selling it, taking away a phone is not the way to help them.

There are many illegal and many immoral activities which we would not like our phones to be used for. It is also clear that the positive uses greatly outweigh the negative uses. I’ve spent a lot of time hanging out near Futel phones, and I’ve heard all sorts of unpleasant words spoken into them. I’ve also heard “I love you”. And there have been nice notes and graffiti left for Futel hosts, thanking them for specific ways that the phones have improved their lives.

The balance is that it would not be possible to prevent all the possible immoral and negative uses of our phones without also preventing the moral and positive uses. How much negative use is there? We can’t know without severely compromising our principles, but it’s tiny, come on. And our phones aren’t an effective way commit crime. As we tell people, “we don’t listen to your calls, but someone else may be”.

We do attempt to guide how the phones are used, of course, by the capabilities we build into them. We would love to provide USB power, but we don’t, because it would be detrimental for the service to have people occupying the space needed for phone operation while they charge their devices or watch TV or whatever.  Once, late at night, I was watching two people dancing in the light of a Futel enclosure. They looked high on something and were shuffling around, taking turns holding each other and kicking their feet. They had their stuff sitting on the sidewalk, I don’t know how they were getting around, probably a cart. It was nice. Then one of them pulled out a folding chair. I cut the power to the lamp because I didn’t want them to camp in front of the phone, which would discourage others from using it. Isn’t that sad? They didn’t get a free light to dance under because of the possible bad effects of them shooting up, nodding out, or just loitering at the phone for a long time.

For a while, there was a regular Futel user who would yell into the phone late at night. His voice was loud and raspy from inhalant abuse and from being fucked up all the time. The cops knew him by name, he stole my young neighbor’s bike once and tried to make amends by leaving another which was too big and barely rideable. He used the phone to hassle his mother for money, and he could be heard down the block. I really wanted him to shut up and move on. But his mom kept talking to him, they had conversations. Was it positive or negative to give him free phone calls from the sidewalk? Both.

There are all sorts of stupid tragedy of the commons arguments which can be made from anecdotes like these. What is important is staying compassionate. We must avoid investing in the negative. That doesn’t mean that we have to be always happy or even pleasant, but we try to have positivity as the foundation for Futel.

It is human nature to fail at this. I once answered a ringing Futel phone, and the caller addressed me by a name that wasn’t mine. I enjoy pranking people who do that when they aren’t in distress. I try to confuse them but keep them on the line as long as I can, and my rule is that I can’t lie. The caller said that he wanted “more”, and I realized that he thought I was someone who had sold him drugs, which is why he had gone along with my random questions and bizarre smalltalk. I tried to trigger some healthy paranoia by saying that I needed him to tell me exactly what he wanted, but he didn’t want to do that, “just the same as last time”. I was hoping that he would ask me a question that would clue him, but he was too focused. Eventually I told him to go to the outdoor tables of the Ash Street in an hour. I still hadn’t lied and didn’t say that I would be there or have what he needed. The phone rang again an hour later but I was unable to answer it because I was talking with my mother on another line. I would have asked him to describe what he were wearing and seen how much of his security he was willing to compromise, maybe have him use some code words or hand signals.

I shouldn’t have used the phone in that way. I regret exploiting some poor sucker’s addiction to lead him on and waste his time for my amusement. I didn’t want him using the phone for drug transactions, and it was a harmless way to haze him. And I’m also naturally drawn to testing people. But compassion needs to be foremost.