Automation as a function of human dignity; unpleasant, dangerous, tedious, chuck it all into the maws of our machines; state of current automation efforts; anthropic-ness of certain technologies; utopia as a world that bends around you, executes your will with ease and wonder; “whispering landscape”; Cocagne;

Dumb ways to die

Predicting the future is not so difficult, says area man, shaking his fist at the car that nearly rear-ended him; we view the deaths of the deep past as (sadly and) hilariously easy to prevent: it will likely be the same with our descendents. What will the textbooks of future children say of accidents like these? When the solution was always so close at hand?? The work of Waymo, Tesla, Zoox in automating cars will plausibly save ~40,000 deaths a year in the United States alone.

Opportunity cost

  • Self-driving cars