Living through the lens of the future (part I)

Originally published on Tumblr.

I don’t like driving. I don’t like having to worry about how much I drink at dinner. I don’t like having to look for parking. I don’t like having to worry about filling the tank, or remembering to pay my insurance. And I’d probably be alone if I said I liked dealing with the bureaucrats responsible for my registration and driver’s license. Why anyone likes any of his is a bit of a mystery.

I might like driving for fun once in a while, the same way I like kayaking, or riding a horse, but that’s not why I drive. I drive to get from A to B. It’s never fun.

The night before last a very drunk man drove his pickup truck down our street. He was driving so fast that by the time he realized he wasn’t on a race track he couldn’t stop fast enough to avoid hitting a parked Mini. The mini survived. The truck flipped. The man went through the windshield. Luck was with him. He walked away.

I’m happy that self-driving cars are close to being a reality. I’m not happy that it’s going to take years for us to transition over to them. So many people will resist the change, from taxi drivers, to car manufacturers, to parking lot owners, to the army of people whose jobs depend on the existence of cars, the people who paint lines, the people who make stop lights, the driving instructors, the registration clerks, etc., etc.

There will be downside for some people, but many people won’t die because a distracted or impaired human failed to control a ton of moving metal. We’ll all finally be able to stop investing money on something that sits idle in a garage 98% of the time. Won’t it be nice to get that garage space back for something else? And of course, we’ll get our cities back, because they’ll be much easier to live in, and we’ll quickly forget the very idea of being stuck in traffic.

Unfortunately, I’m already there, and I feel trapped in the past. Every time I engage the ignition I think of how ridiculous the whole thing is. Every time I read about a traffic accident I think about how easily it could have been avoided.

I know, change takes time, but it’s hard to be patient when the dots so easily connect.