I think self driving cars are certainly coming, but the hype is at least 10 years ahead of the technology. I've never been too keen on the idea, but the other day I realized it could have a definite advantage for me as I get older. Living in the pines, I'm completely dependent on my car and many of us will reach an age where we are unable to drive (although my Grandmother was still driving her 35 year old Rambler around her little hometown in the Midwest until a few days before she died at age 97
). Anyway, the self-driving car could allow older people in rural areas to remain in their homes longer. Just summon a car whenever you need to go somewhere. Of course, they will be programmed to avoid all roads that aren't on the MAP though.
I agree that technology almost always prevails, but the question of whether it's good for humanity is much more complex. There's a movie ,
"The Beginning or the End?" that follows some ficticious characters through the development and use of the first atomic bomb and it ends with a letter from a scientist to his wife, written on his death bed after massive exposure to radiation. He says that atomic energy is actually god's gift to man and dreams of the day when
"the atoms in a blade of grass will send planes to distant lands" (especially ironic as Putin brags about his atom-powered missile that can circle the world). The scientist concludes "
We have found a path so filled with promise, that when we walk down it we will know that everything that went before the age of atomic energy was the dark ages."
Regarding the topic of this thread, it's fascinating that people are lining up to defend Amazon and Jeff Bezos. I suppose that isn't surprising, considering the way they have been politicized (demonized?). I don't have any problem with Amazon or Jeff Bezos and that wasn't the point of the thread. But I do have a problem with allowing
any company to put "always on" microphones and video cameras in my house that store everything they record on their servers. And the idea of giving the same entity physical access to my home and car bothers me even more.
So for you Amazon fans... do you use these services? Or are you planning to get them?
