months before his death in December 2013, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the assault rifle, wrote to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church: “My spiritual torment is unbearable. One and the same question: if my ri fl e killed people, does that mean that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, 93 years of age, the son of a peasant, Christian and Orthodox by faith, am responsible for people’s deaths, even if they were enemies?” 4 Electronic tagging The electronic tag was originally conceived in the 1960s as a way of tracking former prisoners’ attendance at schools and workplaces, and rewarding them for good behaviour. Its inventors, Bob Gable and his brother Kirkland, were later horri fi ed that the tag had become a form of control and punishment. “It’s not pleasant,” Kirkland Gable told the Guardian in 2010, “but I’m not in control of the universe. I have to realize there are some things out of my control.” 5 Pepper spray After police sprayed peaceful protesters with pepper spray at a University of California campus in 2011, one of the scientists who helped develop it in the 80s denounced its use. “I have never seen such an inappropriate and improper use of chemical agents,” Kamran Loghman told The New York Times. 6 The office cubicle In the late 60s, a new form of office was launched, designed to give workers privacy and increase productivity by