Time Machine Box_01
© Nils Jorgensen/Rex Features
Here's a thought experiment for Friday: if you had a time machine and could revisit the past to extinguish a technology before it caught on, what would that invention be?

Weapons aside - too obvious a choice - my vote goes to Google Street View, a web service with a misleading name. It should be called Google House Close-Up. It's a service that helps crooks case joints from afar. They can discover which houses have ropy old window locks, hedges to hide behind or signs that suggest no-one will be in during the school run.

I'm not alone here. The UK prime minister's residence has been taken off, and today brought news of people in Broughton, Buckinghamshire (heroically in my view) blocking Google's photo car from snapping their houses. Other commentators have pointed out the service's "nefarious or criminal" uses, too, while a US couple launched a lawsuit.

I think Google has erred bigtime with Street View and hereby propose it for uninvention. But enough from me: what would you uninvent?