All this lavicious lusting over autonomous cars has me rather bemused.
Ok, yes, they are coming our way, but better to cool it a bit on exaggerated expectations, as if they will magically solve all transport and social problems.
I’m old enough to remember on the onset of nuclear energy the promise that it will produce power ‘…so cheap that it won’t be worth metering’.
I’m old enough to remember the promise that computers will eliminate paper usage. Actually, the introduction of computers in our schools increased paper usage there thirty fold. Meanwhile, growth in IT energy consumption is even outstripping growth in solar energy production.
New technology seems like magic when it is first presented to us, but much of that gloss recedes when we have to live with the downsides later on. Let’s embrace new technology with practicality and our feet firmly on the ground.
