A friend at work
today mentioned a news report he saw about some driver-less car going
up a mountainous road with no guard rail and with passengers on board
but with no one actually driving. This comes as part of a blitz of
developments in smart cars and appliances, bots, the Internet of
Things, wireless everywhere and Artificial Intelligence. I recently
bought a smart TV mostly because I finally wanted HighDef. The TV is
a 2015 model so not so smart. As far as I am concerned, this is a
good thing. With OPM, the DNC, banks and businesses, etcetera,
falling victim to an alarming array of professional and military
hackers, I really am comfortable with all the inanimate devices I use
being dumb and unconnected. I've come to realize that the
ever-increasing wave of technological change has swept by me and
that's okay. I'm comfortable in the world of pre-2016 things. I
really don't need to live in the world of future tech. It's beyond
my event horizon. I don't mind doing my own shopping list and don't
see myself buying a fridge that will do it for me. My washer and
dryer have settings I can set. The house thermostat responds
directly to my pressing its buttons. My car does allow hand-free
calls and hooks my music through Bluetooth from my iPhone. But I
like driving it myself. (I even have stick.)
Those who have grown
up after the time when users could write his/her own programs – I
used Basic to do a recipe program on my Commodore 64 – and even
more those now getting iPads in school will feel quite comfortable
traveling through a world best captured in the sci-fi series of The
Golden Age. Hopefully, it won't all collapse into a singularity.
