How to prevent phones from getting stolen — the ultimate question of life and everything.

Yesterday, my phone was snatched from me while walking through an empty early morning alley. Naturally, I ran after the guy and managed to catch him after a few blocks (which I’m very proud of). However, he threw it to a friend who ran away with it. I was out of breath. These gangs in Barcelona are pretty well organized.

Quite angry and walking the long walk of shame back home, I was thinking of solutions that could turn this problem into an opportunity, just like anyone would. I thought a while about how we could develop something inside phones that periodically transmits coordinates even when the battery is removed. Or maybe even a brand of mobile batteries that could connect to networks on its own (and hold more charge!). This way, with minor variations, my customer base would be the entire smartphone user base, like phone case manufacturers.

Then I decided to go macro. It’s not just phones that are stolen. Batteries for everything? Maybe. But theft probably takes up only an insignificant share in crimes. Murder, rape, fraud. Prevention is definitely easier than cure because in most cases the damage is already done. Also, less drama.

Then I realized that our visionary ancestors had not only found a solution, but also implemented it pretty decently — Religion, which said people will be punished if they do bad things. By a force that doesn’t have to investigate, but just knows the ones who did wrong. This makes punishment inevitable in a way other law enforcement mechanisms cannot ensure. I’m pretty sure it has played an important part in preventing crimes in societies. However, as we have seen, this might work very well in a strict monopoly. In the fragmented manner it exists today, it only leads to a lot more troubles. Just like Facebook or any other platform, the fun is only if everyone is on the same network.