| HN Mirror

So it is potentially as cut and dry as you suggest, but I'm going to dig into the anthropology of security a bit here and posit that in certain pockets of the world we are entering a post-lock age. Where, as Paul Gerhardt said, locks are about choosing who you let in.

To do this idea justice I should give you a thousands words on the great lock controversy of 1851, but suffice it to say that there was a watershed moment in the 19th century when England, and by extension Europe & the colonies, learned that the idea of perfect security was dead. While technological innovation temporarily boomed, it ultimately fell into a century-long decline. This was punctuated by the criminalization of the exploration of security, and a bunch of other bad stuff.

In general, we saw a decline of technological methods of ensuring security and a dramatic increase in political methods of ensuring security. Whether or not this worked, in the past decade in the US we have developed pockets of this country that, despite reasonably high population density, could completely eschew locks without much worry. Locks have become as much a symbol of social order as a mechanical construct.

OK, all of that said - for those people who are enjoying this level of safety and security, locks take on a different idea. Keys often seem burdensome, and when trying to sell new products to this market, you can't rely on scare tactics anymore. Instead we see a big shift toward convenience (this is mirrored in the early 19th century, by the way) and now, the addition of social features, which shouldn't be misunderstood to mean twitter, facebook, etc. But the ability to share keys easily, to security semi-private spaces in easy, convenient ways.

As a whole, we aren't living in a post-lock world, but there is a vibrant market of people who are living in something close. To them the lock needs to do more than act as a bulwark to roving malice.

EDIT: For the record, I didn't downvote you, and I'm a little bummed to see that others did. I think you brought something up that a LOT of people think, and I don't think it's invalid. It also provided me the opportunity to inject some nuance, so I was glad you commented!