Unanticipated Consequences of Purposeive Social Action

The phrase unanticipated consequences was coined a few years before Midgley's death. Simple error is one way we might get unanticipated consequences. We think we know what will happen, but we're wrong. Or maybe the situation is so novel we can't imagine what we might need to know. Thomas Midgely worked out that revving your car sounded like you were firing a machine gun - and nobody even understood why it happened. The interaction with ozone came completely out of the blue. But where would you even start to look for a solution? Kettering and Midgely talked it over. And then they asked: What do you want me to do next, boss? This time