"Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast." (twostrokesmoke)
05/28/2014 at 12:54 • Filed to: None
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"Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast." (twostrokesmoke)
05/28/2014 at 12:54 • Filed to: None | 3
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In an increasingly autonomous and automatic world, it can be a struggle not to become an automaton yourself. There's a Rush song, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! It's all about the joy of driving his uncle's old convertible sports car, which in my mind I picture as something like this:
It was a song about the freedom of the road. But as time passes, I begin to imagine that as a song about resisting the restrictions that we will inevitably place on ourselves, for better or worse. Not so much as losing a freedom of movement, but of losing the freedom of spirit that seems to go with it hand in hand.
Gone will be the entire experience that, at some point people may just find pointless. How can you explain it to the next generation? How do you describe the feel of the engine's power being fed directly to your nervous system via the accelerator pedal? The sensation of speed at your command? Your destination? You don't know because you are just out for a ride, with no particular destination in mind. It is the closest we can feel to being a part of the wind. I don't want to see that lost, it is too important to us as a species.
daender
> Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
05/28/2014 at 12:59 |
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I think a gas-powered racing series will still be around in the future so there's always that. On the flip side, I maintain my position that EX-Driver will become reality; we'll have people in gas-powered carbureted cars saving people from out of control electric AI cars.
TheBaron2112
> Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
05/28/2014 at 13:01 |
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Glad to see another Rush fan.
I've definitely agreed with the sentiment of the song and it's required listening on ALL my drives to the countryside. If you haven't, you need to find "A Nice Morning Drive" which is the short story Red Barchetta was based on. It talks further about what you are.
And it's definitely a worry of mine. Not one that I think is right around the corner, but I do think that there will be a gradual erosion of the connection between man and machine. We're already seeing these things happen now. But I don't think that in the US we'll ever get to the point where certain types of cars are outlawed. Hell, a lot of cars on the road aren't road legal anyway.
But the only way to pass the joy and sensation of driving on to successive generations is to retain a car that is pure and fun and to maintain it in such a way that it can be used as intended.
Forgetful
> Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
05/28/2014 at 13:04 |
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We'll probably be able to drive our own cars for the extent of our lifetime, even if driverless cars become the norm. The autonomous (and electric) car will liberate the traditional ICE powered, driver driven car from its duties as the everyday workhorse. It will then be free to be enjoyed by enthusiasts, much like horses.
We could relax emissions and mileage standards, which would hopefully open the market to smaller companies making more enthusiast oriented vehicles.
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Forgetful
> daender
05/28/2014 at 13:09 |
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I dunno, I get the feeling it's more likely to be AI controlled cars saving people from 'unintended acceleration' incidents that are usually a result of driver error.
The Google car has yet to have an incident on the open road. People were crashing cars as soon as we started building them.
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Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
> daender
05/28/2014 at 13:11 |
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It's not even about the power source, ICE or electric though. It's the movement. I'm not really opposed to electric cars. I find the Tesla lustworthy.
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Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
> TheBaron2112
05/28/2014 at 13:17 |
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I think the connection between man and machine is actually increasing, but not really in the right way.