If you don’t pay attention to The Big Scary News, the world is amazing. I like to think of all of the differences between modern life and my childhood:
- The freakin’ internet! (And computers, even in our pockets)
- Cars are now reliable (looking at you Chevy Citation)
- We have abundant access to cheap food
- Air travel is cheap and easy
- Incredible advances in health care
You wouldn’t know how great the world is if you pay attention to news. Instead, you’d be quickly convinced that society is on the verge of collapse and the cause is people from the opposite side of the political aisle. Sigh…
Nerdery
I’m a nerd, so I’m biased towards nerd things, especially technology.
One amazing advancement that I never saw coming was cars that drive themselves. When I was in Phoenix a couple of months ago, there were Waymo robotaxis (yes, no driver!) everywhere:
And now, even my simple Model Y can mostly drive itself too:
- A week ago at about 9:30pm, the Y drove me around the mountains, through the city of Boulder, and back to my home in Longmont with no intervention. It spotted two humans darting across the road and slowed down to be cautious. (Again, this was at night!) The second one was wearing dark clothes and my human eyes barely saw him.
- Later on in the week, the car drove me to Boulder and back. Again, no intervention from me.
Is it perfect? Nope. It still drives clunky at times, especially in residential Longmont. It can’t interpret all traffic signs including this one:
It can read hand signals from the police or construction workers. Sometimes the car is a total *&^% and hangs out in the left lane*. It’s not ready for driverless operation and it may not be for years, but what it does now is a spectacular technical achievement. Even if MIndy-Wife is not its greatest fan:
If someone would have told you 20 years ago that cars would drive themselves, I would have thought that they were crazy. Now here we are.
Now, if someone would just come out with the flying car. The good news is that we may not be far from this either.
And the pace on innovation is accelerating, driven by advances in artificial intelligence. I’m really curious to see how AI is applied to medicine. I can see a world in the near future where AI is used to help with diagnosis and discover drugs.
Life is good.
*The is a big peeve of mine! DON”T be that person!
Carl-
Definitely need more action videos like the one in your latest post. I laughed so hard when the camera/phone fell and it definitely made my morning. I have to agree with Mindy. I don’t like letting go of that car control to a computer. But I must admit, I don’t like being a passenger in a car driven by a not so good human driver either. I think that control issue is from my childhood – I was woken up in the middle of a car accident (parent was driving in early morning). I also have to wonder if the “driver” of a car being driven by the computer the responsible party if an accident happens or someone gets injured? Not sure if laws have been updated to determine if a drunk driver that used his Telsa self driving mode because they were drunk, can they still be pulled over for a DUI? Lots of interesting questions are popping up. Can teenagers learning to drive/have a driving permit can be allowed (by law) to use the self driving mode?
Anyways, Team Mindy!
I agree with all of your points Carl, except that air travel is cheap and easy ha. Maybe I’m flying the wrong airport or times, but it’s around $400-$500 to go to Colorado or the middle of the country, and on top of that airplanes and airports are packed. Who are all these people with so much extra money! Anyway, I agree so much that life is awesome right now. So many things to be grateful for, and so many talented hardworking people making things even better.
I’m sure glad I didn’t have to do homework by candlelight and and sew my own clothes!
“If someone would have told you 20 years ago that cars would drive themselves, I would have thought that they were crazy.”
No way I wouldn’t have thought they were crazy. I believed we would all be in flying cars living like the jetsons by the year 2000. We are 24 years late in my opinion. I blame too much commercialization of the internet and social media slowing us down. Just imagine if the world was all working together peacefully advancing humanity and knowledge like in star trek!
I agree AI might be the catalyst to speed things up. As long as it doesn’t out smart us and determine we are the problem it needs to “fix”.
“Just imagine if the world was all working together peacefully advancing humanity and knowledge like in star trek!”
Now you’re speaking my language!
But, it seems like the pace of advancement is accelerating. Life is good and getting better.
“If you don’t pay attention to The Big Scary News, the world is amazing.”
Yes, if we ignore the world’s very real problems, everything is fine! Come on. I understand what you’re getting at, but this is just too simplistic. Not to mention dangerous. Maybe find a way to celebrate the good while not ignoring–and, hey, maybe even trying to improve–the bad?
Just a thought…
I think we’re probably on the same page, but just in case, here you go:
Have you watched the “news” lately? Murders. School shootings. War. Genocide. There is a difference between staying loosely informed on big issues and watching CNN or Fox News.
I keep tabs on what’s going on in the world and then help out where I can. Examples: I believe climate change is real, so I drive an EV and put solar panels on my place. I don’t like what’s going on in Ukraine, so have donated money to organizations that help Ukraine. Perhaps most importantly, I vote. But for the most part, it’s out of my circle of control. So I do what I can and let the rest go.
I agree with you 100% of ‘scary news’. I live in New Zealand and since your (US) last president was not good for my mental health, I have actively kept away from bad news and politics. I think I have to do this for my own sanity. 24 hrs news is not a good thing (for me anyhow). Click bait news is only about money… it just took me too long to realize.
BTW, I love the US, I go every year or two. It’s my favorite place to be. No country is perfect and non western countries cannot believe how well the USA, and other western nations have it. Always be grateful for what we have.
The reality is we’ll never change the world’s big problems. I can barely change my problems. Since turning off the news I’m able to make a much bigger dent in my problems. I’m not angry and discouraged all the time. I have more energy.
That’s how you make change. Fix your problems. Raise children who will fix their problems. Fix your friends problems. Fix your families problems. Fix your neighbors problems.
If Elon could keep his mouth shut, Tesla products would appeal to even more people. Megalomania is a real turn off for some and really unpleasant for those he targets.
I couldn’t agree more. He states that Tesla’s mission is to ‘accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy…’ He’s clearly hurting that mission. I can think of multiple friends who have canceled Tesla orders because of his crap.
He is the face of a company but he’s also a person. As a business owner myself I never post my own opinions for fear of ticking someone off and losing customers. It’s actually one of the reasons I want to get to fi. To be able to speak my opinion without fear of going broke.
While people may not like his opinions, at what point do you let yourself be dictated by the mob, or public opinion? When do you have enough money you say I’m going to speak my mind to heck with the consequences.
Carl you scofflaw!
Hope things are continuing well in CO despite your attempt at Tesla Therapy with Mindy
(Mindy, it’s totally fine to want to be in reasonable control, esp when Carl seemingly tells the car to ignore the speed limit(!?)????