Although we have called them thus, automobiles have, until recently, never been “auto.” We’ve always had a hand in the process. Self-mobile machines, acting autonomously, are a product of our technology, and they represent a new phase in the way we move from place to place. Of course, self-driving still requires a purpose: Someone has to tell the car not only to go, but also where to go and for how long.
For many there might be a certain charm in having a driverless car chauffer them from point A to point B. Arrive on the red carpet in style with gawkers flashing their phone cameras for pics of the empty driver’s seat while the celebrity emerges in glitter. Travel everywhere while reading a digital book. Send the kids off to practice without concern about an accident. Ah! The future is here. We don’t really have to do much. New found time on our hands. New found sense of importance. “I have a machine that does that for me.”
Not so fast, Miss Daisy. Your newly acquired chauffer has also taken something from you: The details of control. It’s in the handling of those details that you get to express the essence of YOU. A zillion little decisions made the way only YOU could or would make them. Hidden desires revealed in those decisions now manifested in your destinations, maybe hidden abilities, and yes, hidden mistakes from which to learn. Something else: Unexpected destinations with new avenues of opportunity.
Maybe the only truly “automatic” life is the one that relies on the Self for all the decisions. No interference, though constructive criticism is an acceptable intrusion. There will be accidents now and then. There will be wrong turns. Self, however, will be to blame for failure, and Self will claim success.
In a society headed for autonomous technological drivers, are we going down the road that drives Self out of self-control? We’re not just talking cars anymore. We’re talking about a society that takes care of all the little decisions and that promises, however falsely, no accidents and no wrong turns. Comfort and safety: Can you beat that?
A completely safe Self is also one that takes no risks, abandons responsibility, and languishes in the back seat, watching, not driving. Take the wheel, Miss Daisy.
For many there might be a certain charm in having a driverless car chauffer them from point A to point B. Arrive on the red carpet in style with gawkers flashing their phone cameras for pics of the empty driver’s seat while the celebrity emerges in glitter. Travel everywhere while reading a digital book. Send the kids off to practice without concern about an accident. Ah! The future is here. We don’t really have to do much. New found time on our hands. New found sense of importance. “I have a machine that does that for me.”
Not so fast, Miss Daisy. Your newly acquired chauffer has also taken something from you: The details of control. It’s in the handling of those details that you get to express the essence of YOU. A zillion little decisions made the way only YOU could or would make them. Hidden desires revealed in those decisions now manifested in your destinations, maybe hidden abilities, and yes, hidden mistakes from which to learn. Something else: Unexpected destinations with new avenues of opportunity.
Maybe the only truly “automatic” life is the one that relies on the Self for all the decisions. No interference, though constructive criticism is an acceptable intrusion. There will be accidents now and then. There will be wrong turns. Self, however, will be to blame for failure, and Self will claim success.
In a society headed for autonomous technological drivers, are we going down the road that drives Self out of self-control? We’re not just talking cars anymore. We’re talking about a society that takes care of all the little decisions and that promises, however falsely, no accidents and no wrong turns. Comfort and safety: Can you beat that?
A completely safe Self is also one that takes no risks, abandons responsibility, and languishes in the back seat, watching, not driving. Take the wheel, Miss Daisy.
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