Put Down the Damn Cell Phone

There is a big push to build self-driving cars and other autonomous vehicles. This push is technology driven, but it is not the technology of the cars or the artificial intelligence or the sensors that make it work. No. What is driving this is the technology of hand-held electronic devices: Cell phones, I-pods, tablets, and the like. It is the inability of people to put these devices down when logic dictates that you should not be looking at them. Like for example, when you are driving, or walking across the street, or operating heavy equipment. Common sense would seem to indicate that these are potentially hazardous activities and perhaps it might be better to hold off on answering that text message instead of responding to it this very minute.

But people are stupid. I say this with some authority. Just read the paper every day. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if the stupid people just killed or maimed themselves, but how many innocent people have died because of the actions of the stupid? So, since we can’t get people to put down their devices, we have to come up with a whole new technology to accommodate them. Hence the push for autonomous self-driving vehicles. Perhaps Human psychology has not kept up with human technology. We haven’t figured out how to shape the proper behavior. Psychology gets applied to things like marketing. Maybe there should be a whole new branch devoted to putting the damn cell phone down (but where is the money in that?)

It seems like we are headed down a bad road. I think technology is great, I love my computer, my cell phone, my tablet. But I see younger and younger kids being given cell phones and tablets, or just plopped in front of the TV. Such devices are addictive to an adult, imagine how more addictive it can be when it is all you have known your entire life. Overexposure of kids to electronic devices has been linked to obesity, sleeplessness, behavioral problems, educational problems, etc. When I see a two year-old being handed a tablet to keep him entertained, that is tantamount to child abuse. Perhaps in such cases the child needs to be taken away and given to an autonomous self-driving parental device.

(My novel Star Liner, is now available as an e-book through Amazon, or the other usual online sources. For those who like to turn physical pages, the paperback will be out soon).

Star Liner

Comments

Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove

Despite both of us having science backgrounds, my wife and I share a leaning toward the artistic, though we may express it in different ways. In her life, my wife has been a painter, a poet, a singer, an actor, and a fiction writer. Not to mention a mother. I don’t remember what precipitated this event, but my wife, my son, and I were at home in the front room. My wife was responding to something my son said. She said, “remember, you get half your brains from me. If it wasn’t for me, you’d be a complete idiot.” To which my son started howling with laughter and said to me,” I think you have just been insulted.” Sometimes I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. I get no respect. But that is not an uncommon state of affairs for fatherhood. When my son was going to middle school and high school, my wife was always the one to go in with him to get him registered for classes. One time she was unable to go and I had to be the one to get him registered. “Ugh,” he said. “why can’t Mama do i...

Empathy

Websters defines Empathy as: “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.” Empathy is what makes us human, though lord knows there are many humans who don’t seem to have any. A person without empathy is like a caveman, only concerned for himself. Selfish. It is a lack of community and by extension, a lack of the need for civilization. The person who lacks empathy can have a bit of community, but only with others exactly like himself. It seems like societies go through cycles of empathy and less empathy. Sometimes a single event can change the course of society. Prior to America’s involvement in WWII, the general feeling in America was not very empathetic. We had our own problems. We were still dealing with the lingering effects of the Great Depression, and had been for years. That kind of stress makes it hard to think of others. Hitler was slashing through Europe. He and his fol...

A Deception

I have a secret. I deceived my mother. Okay, it was like 50 years ago and she is gone now, but still . . . I was generally a good boy. I did as I was told. My family lived a pretty strait-laced, middle-class, fairly conservative life. We were a G-rated family, well, until my older siblings broke the mold, but at this time, I was still in the mold. My friend Rich and I made a plan. Rich had asked me if I wanted to see Cabaret . He said he didn’t think much of Liza Minnelli, but he wouldn’t mind seeing her take her clothes off. We were like 13 years old and sex was ever-present on our minds as much as it was absent in our households. Cabaret was not rated R. It was rated PG. The ratings system has changed since that time. There was no PG-13; there was just the choice of G, PG, and R (X was not an official rating). Apparently the makers of Cabaret satisfied the ratings commission enough to escape an R rating, so it was PG. There was therefore no law or ...

A speculative mind

Search This Blog