There is an important parable to be invoked here, Chesterton’s fence, named for turn-of-the-20th-century philosopher and writer G. K. Chesterton, the man who first described it. Chesterton’s fence urges caution in making changes to systems that are not fully understood; it is thus a concept related to the Precautionary principle. Chesterton wrote this of a “fence or gate erected across a road”:
