Growing up, a lot of us heard our elders condemning taking shortcuts in life. My mom sang to my ears the importance of taking longcuts, and indeed, there are disadvantages to taking the short way in life. Shortcuts in life can be terrible, truly, but it's the other way around in the digital space.
On computers, it works like magic and makes our operations a lot easier. I remembered when I started using shortcuts during my computer training days. My instructor prohibited it, claiming shortcuts make beginners lazy, but all those warnings weren't for me. I was eager to know more and went around asking but wouldn't use them in the presence of my instructor.
Being able to apply computer shortcuts in reality will be a great achievement for the human race because life will be a lot easier. We can easily delete, restore, undo, and perform so many tasks without stress.
Just striking the Esc key can help me exit an awkward situation, and it would look like that particular scenario never happened. I can imagine how many lives will be saved daily by just clicking Ctrl+Z, probably after an accident or mistake. I bet the world will become a completely different place from what we used to know.
Some years ago, I and my roommate contributed money to make noodles for dinner. I boiled the egg first in salt water (it's a hack to easily remove the egg shell), removed the egg from the salt water, and stepped out after to get some basil leaves without informing my friend.
Instead of waiting for me, he continued the cooking with the salt water I left on the burner. I came back with basil leaves and was pissed after perceiving the noodles seasoning. I was still complaining that he should have waited so we could add basil leaves when I discovered that he actually continued the cooking with the salt water. He automatically made the noodles useless because we couldn't eat it.
That day, I wished I could undo everything that happened, but it was just impossible. It would have been a different scenario if we could use computer shortcuts; I just need to undo his actions and continue with mine.
After a bad day, striking Ctrl+Alt+Del can instantly help reboot my day. Honestly, all these would make life a lot easier, but there are many disadvantages attached to this idea, and the biggest would be human overdependence on shortcuts. We won't care about making mistakes, growth won't be a priority so things are automatically messed up.
One of the things humans know how to do best is abuse privileges or opportunities, and being able to apply computer shortcuts in reality would only make things worse. We definitely do not need to put effort into things anymore when we can always undo our actions once we make mistakes.
A driver can decide to multitask on the road while driving, therefore causing a fatal accident, and all he needs to do is undo.
A criminal can always escape from a crime scene using the Esc key, so the world is definitely going into chaos.
I don't see these shortcuts doing more good than harm, so its best shortcuts remain a thing in the digital space. Without these shortcuts, life can continue for us as it should. We all know the consequences of making mistakes, and this would make us do things the right way. In fact, embracing challenges and consequences is one guaranteed way for personal growth, so these shortcuts aren't needed.
It's fair to say that whichever way we intend to bring shortcuts into human life, it probably won't end well.
All image are mine