The Midgley Awards

For outstanding achievement in unintended consequences

Recognizing an individual whose ingenious solution to one problem succeeded beyond expectations and, in doing so, created an entirely new class of problems nobody adequately accounted for.

Eligibility

  • A terrible product doesn't qualify. The original idea has to be a clever, successful answer to a real problem.
  • The backfire lives outside the frame. The damage shows up where the problem boundary was drawn too narrowly.
  • Say what was knowable. Midgley's lead hazard was known at the time; the ozone chemistry wasn't.

The serious question behind the joke: what would qualify us for a Midgley thirty years from now? Use the Prospective category to nominate a decision being made today, in transportation, housing, energy, AI or city-building, before it wins.

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