In high school I did a research paper about the early astronauts. One of the things that I found interesting was that the astronauts (pretty much all former test pilots) had to fight the administration types so that they could actually fly the space craft. Much of it was still automated but without fighting for it probably all of it would have been.* They wanted the opportunity and the thrill of driving these spacecraft for themselves.
Lately there has been a lot of talk (and some testing) of automated vehicles. Then we don't have to drive!
I don't know much about automated cars or the implications of such things but it has made me think. First, why is it that things one group of people fights for is then readily given up by another group. (And I'm no different... I didn't make much of an effort to vote this year).
Second, in our effort to delegate everyday chores to machinery I wonder what we lose in other ways.... In the past women gathered to wash clothes together and men gathered to work the fields, especially in harvest. Automation of much of these tasks has cut out on this community.
Potentially, automated cars could give us more time to do other things while being transferred about, like reading or playing games on our phones (at least that is what I did when I took the bus regularly). Which honestly doesn't sound that productive/healthy. Sometimes I wonder if in all our getting we don't get understanding.... we just make more time for recreation... which isn't always a good thing.
*From what I remember this was more for the early orbiting missions rather than for the landing on the moon and docking missions later.
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