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☞ The Technological Parentheses of Our Lives

  • Article
  • Nov 16, 2021
  • #Technology
Samuel Arbesman
@arbesman
(Author)
arbesman.substack.com
Read on Substack
1 Recommender
1 Mention
My daughter used to pay very careful attention to my driving. But it wasn’t really just about road safety or even sightseeing—it was about information. She noticed landmarks and str... Show More

My daughter used to pay very careful attention to my driving. But it wasn’t really just about road safety or even sightseeing—it was about information. She noticed landmarks and streets, she asked about road signs, and she carefully watched traffic lights. All of this was because, as she happily informed me, she wanted to be ready to drive when she was older. Her excitement for this milestone many years away was infectious, and all of this attention and learning was in service of this goal. But all I could think about when she would tell me this was that there was a decent probability that she would never have to learn how to drive. With all of the developments and buzz around autonomous driving (though this promise continues to recede into the future), she may never need to learn how to do this. Something that requires hours of practice and has been a rite of passage for American teenagers for decades might simply evaporate from our culture. This skill could very well end up going the way of the finer points of mastering the buggy whip. Or—post-pandemic and its technology-mediated shopping—the skill of purchasing items in a store in-person.

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Josh Wolfe @wolfejosh · May 8, 2022
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26/ "...All of this is technology. But so too are we blind to the fact that each technology that we’re steeped in might be far from permanent." Full MUST READ piece by @arbesman here
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