The Dark Side of Tinkering

摘要

Crime once took skill, but now it often relies on clever misuse of everyday objects. Until September 11 the humble box cutter was the Yankee counterpart of the Swiss Army knife: rugged, versatile, curved for a powerful grip, the master key to our corrugated-clad cornucopia. We may never know just how this little device became a lever of mass murder. Details of the investigation are still secret, but the utility knives that Mohamed Atta and his accomplices wielded that Tuesday were not necessarily concealed from airport screeners: the blades were well under the 4-inch limit prescribed at the time by the Federal Aviation Administration. Hundreds of law-abiding American technicians and hobbyists probably carried one on board in an attache case or overnighter that morning. Yet the box cutter has taught us the power of criminal redefinition of legitimate technology―what might be called deviant ingenuity.