Why Are Fake Theranos Results Worse Than a Broken iPhone?

Tyler Shultz says a fake Theranos result is worse than a broken iPhone because the person who gets a medical diagnostic test has no idea whether the result is accurate. When a software product fails, the user sees the failure. Apple does not keep backup fake information on the iPhone and throw it at the user so the phone looks like it worked, the way fake texts from a mom would.

He knew the test did not work, and that is when he started speaking up. Theranos was actively hurting people with the test in use. Amazing technology behind a locked door he never got to see would not change the harm.

PJ Vogt points to reporter John Carreyrou's book Bad Blood, where a teenage girl was mistakenly told she was at risk of a heart attack and other patients were wrongly rushed to emergency rooms. One doctor wrote to Theranos to complain, and the company never acknowledged her letter. Some people inside Theranos justified the harm as technology still being perfected, the Silicon Valley habit of fake it till you make it. Steve Jobs jerry-rigged the first iPhone for the presentation, and a slower internet connection than buyers had been led to expect would not matter the way a fake medical diagnosis does.