The title of this entry is Drive*. Notice the asterisk? The other day, a dear friend posted one of
those ubiquitous internet memes berating Generation Me. You know—those confounded millennials
every elder despises? Yes, them…again.
Here it is:
I posited that an asterisk should be attached to
“drive”, appending another note of sarcasm. Now, my sarcasm should have been interpreted to berate those kids
further, meaning, they actually haven’t learned to drive—at least, not
properly, nor remotely to the standards of their pontificating elders. In fact, I don’t believe drivers (mostly the
American variety) et al have evolved much.
We’re all doing our best—in the most wildly varying sense—navigating
from A to B without catastrophe, using an olden system of roads and rules rife
with ambiguity and interpretation.
Nobody, it seems, wants to change anything, even after confronted with
disheartening 35,000/year death and 3M/year injury stats. When they do, those efforts are suddenly gift-wrapped
in blaze red cellophane tape.
Example? Look no further than GOP
hopeful and former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush.
Back in May 2005, he cited a lack of empirical evidence after vetoing a popular
Road Rage Reduction Act in Florida.
It would have made it illegal to loiter in the left lane of an
interstate or multi-lane highway. You
know the rule—Keep Right Except to Pass?
Nobody squats in the left lane making others angry, supposedly. That, my friends, is the very definition of
disconnect. But no, I’m not blogging a
hit piece on Jeb today. Other than the
aforementioned disconnect, well, and that whole Florida homeowner’s insurance rates
quadrupling during his reign thing, I suspect he’s a rather nice fellow. My concern is for the simple stagnation in
basic transportation, and its need to evolve.
Who’s championing this? I mean
right now, who?
You may have been monitoring the autonomous automobile
ongoings at Google, Tesla, and other tech campuses such as Audi, BMW, and, yeah, yet another German automaker, Mercedes-Benz,
and their ‘mobile living space’.
(Neat, but really, Mercedes?) Suffice
to say, there are more than a few brilliant minds groupthinking their way
towards removing your hands from the steering wheel. Is that what we want? Woody Allen’s
Sleeper? Someone pass the orb,
dude! Ah well, I believe driving—it’s
purpose—comes down to individual philosophy, attitudes, and their resulting (pardon
the pun) impacts they have on other drivers.
For those that tremble at the responsibility,
dread climbing into that seat, timidly thrust themselves into the fray of a
multi-lane freeway, and general perceive driving as a necessary labor of
despise—a painful sacrifice to Chronos—self-driving automobiles hearken lofty angelic
chorales and glistening metallic pain crystals (throw a little Vaseline on the
lens for that softened soap opera look).
And, this might be a good thing.
You see, these are the folks that just might not belong behind the wheel
in the first place, similarly to the many disabled people who also need a ride
(well argued in this Oatmeal
article). Philosophy and attitudes may
conflict with additional education on the subject, let alone any
enthusiasm. Folks like myself, on the
other hand, wish we could get better at it.
Moreover, we enjoy driving itself, and crave the war on Chronos when it
matters. Get out of the way you texting
pacifists, I’m trying to DRIVE here!
To be fair, those same car manufacturers excel at the
conventional driver experience (Google being the exception, of course). We already have countless vehicles with
exceeding capabilities far beyond that which global governments will
permit. Why is that, by the way? Ah, well, not the debate de jour. What I mean is, if we possess the Six Million
Dollar Man army in vehicles—to go better, faster, etc.—what’s the holdup?
Us
Yes, it’s us.
We are the flatulence nobody claims, the sloth—the whining sloth—that
deserves what is to come. That’s
right. Once this autonomous driving
thing is perfected, and we are all still paying through the nostrils for
insuring the technology, a driving we
will no longer go. God forbid a software
glitch makes a deadly mistake creating a class litigation swarm complete with
desperate television advertisements.
So help me out here: Who is listening to actual drivers out there? No, I don’t mean anyone behind a steering wheel,
I mean those who wish to stay there and get better at it. Who?
Anyone? Helloooooooo...
Better Drivers, Better Roads, Better Rules. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz What do we get? Better cars, but with more distractions and less visibility.
The above article
was meant to conjoin a previous installment regarding a Super License. There
exists individuals with ideas, obviously.
Mine is not exactly original. I
would also cite the entire country of Finland and their efforts to create the Master
Race(rs) (used in pointed pun and jest).
So what does politics have to do with it? Everything.
Be mindful of those that champion your cause and vote for them
accordingly. But if you detect a
sniveling panderer to complacency, dump ‘em like the steaming handful of poo they
are. Please! ;)
Listen*
Oops. Another asterisk. Have you
seen this?
The Info Age is slowly but surely whittling away the ‘magic’ that is ..er..
was the craft of commercial music. For
the purposes of disclosure, I’ve been dawdling within that industry for a
couple decades now, and I’ve been exposed the man behind the curtain. Hmm… not sure that came out right. Anyway…
Now hang on, don’t get your G-strings over-tightened, folks. Not every artist is a manufactured dupe. I’m strictly referencing the
carefully-considered-in-a-boardroom-think-tank types.
These acts have been around for decades because they make money. Remember, it’s the music business. The music industry. The publishing industry. And on and on and
so forth. Although true artist/performers
are commingled within, there will always be a percentage of commercially-conceived
performers miming the latest computer-generated hits. Until the consuming public defers those acts,
they will always be around. Don’t be
surprised by this if you’re buying into it.
Engineering feats and faultless acting are ever on the increase. It’s up to you to buy it or not—especially
after your enlightenment.
Writing Update and More from
…Nelson’s Arcane
DUST’s sequel is still in the making, of course. I’ve experienced a recent slow-down due to a real-estate
intervention and other life activities, but the creating and writing
continues! I’m still hoping for a 2015
release, but I can’t give a date yet.
There is a lot of work yet to be done.
In the meantime, here are a couple more hidden homages within DUST:
From the chapter, “Rocked”:
“…Trovarto produced a plain
black metallic and rectangular bar that measured about nine centimeters long,
four centimeters wide, and just one centimeter thick..” —The dimensional ratios of Monsignor
Trovarto’s communicator are the same as the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. This
ratio also appears throughout the famous Parthenon.
From the Chapter, “Amerimem Industries”:
“You can always throw a
sheet over him or something.” —Chris said
this to Emily when she became frightened at the prospect of another night with
Xeno (a stuffed toy clown) in her room.
This is a reference to a classic scene from Poltergeist.
More Soon!
/T
