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Self-driving vehicles are a cool and novel goal, but it's just not inspirational. I saw the first prototype on campus 17-18 years ago. Honestly, my thoughts on

Self-driving vehicles are a cool and novel goal, but it's just not inspirational. I saw the first prototype on campus 17-18 years ago. Honestly, my thoughts on them are similar to those on nuclear fusion...basically like "Shit man, they're not ubiquitous yet." in that it always seemed more of an eventuality, not a bold, unexpected step forward. Inspirational things are usually illogical and are more rooted in emotion and ideas formed during childhood and the myths we internalize at that age. It will save a great number of lives, decrease commute times and be beneficial for the environment for sure. But it will mostly be of benefit to people with the highest standard of living on the globe. Honestly, I was looking forward to a world in which technology enabled a world to become more classically liberal, a world that encouraged the free flow of goods, services, capital, culture, people, and ideas where a person's identity isn't so wrapped up in the idea of the nation-state and the stupid games they play. So yeah, this year has been kind of dissapointing. If you can't tell, I'm a huge Star Trek. For example, John Glenn's effort towards nuclear non-proliferation leading to global disarmament (save for a few emergency nukes...never know when an asteroid could be headed this why and we need to send the world's best fracking crew...Hollywood should totally do a sequel with frackers and it'd get the thumbs up from Trump) I digress. Society in general don't find automonous cars inspirational. there was no ticker tape parade when Uber completed its first ride in PA. And if there were a live stream, not many people were interested. Although fundamentally it is a human accomplishment, it's not that exciting to see a machine run code.

rubicon33 10y ago
While I do see what you're saying, I still have my doubts as to the root cause of society's apathy. In my opinion, it's not a lack of inspirational work being done, it's a narcissism and detachment from community, that drives the attention towards personal goals rather that the goals of the community. I think self driving cars are a MAJOR leap forward for man kind, and something we all SHOULD be having parades for. If it reaches the market, it will be the most widespread, and profound application of artificial intelligence that mankind has developed yet. Without argument, it will be the first time a machine learning application has saved lives on a grand scale. It may well mark the dawn of the Machine Learning age, welcoming in a new era where software transcends the trivial 'app' in a big, practical way. Think about that. We can argue all day about why people aren't inspired by self driving cars. In truth, there are probably hundreds of reasons. But, if you ask me they are extremely exciting and invigorating. Uber's PA event was one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
- FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago
  > I think self driving cars are a MAJOR leap forward for man kind, and something we all SHOULD be having parades for. If it reaches the market, it will be the most widespread, and profound application of artificial intelligence that mankind has developed yet. Without argument, it will be the first time a machine learning application has saved lives on a grand scale. It may well mark the dawn of the Machine Learning age, welcoming in a new era where software transcends the trivial 'app' in a big, practical way. Think about that I agree completely with this line of thought, but humans aren't wired that way. The rise in ubiquity of machine-learning powered software will improve our lives greatly....and do so mostly behind the scenes while the average person isn't giving it much thought. In fact, unfortunately, eventually and inevitably, even with self-driving cars, people will still find new reason for road rage. > We can argue all day about why people aren't inspired by self driving cars. In truth, there are probably hundreds of reasons. There's really just one. People aren't interested in watching machines execute code. For example, would you really want to watch two AI's play LoL, DotA2, or chess against each other. Many kids aren't going to watch. Similarly, I've learned this the hard way. Perhaps 95-98% of users will not care about how you implemented an app even if you revolutionize the field of Algo's and Data Structures. They will just look at it and say, I guess it's pretty fast, but I really like this parallax when you scroll down. Even though I found it hugely inspirational that we made an object that has now left the solar system (and it was created 40 years ago with all the processing power a modern, ChiFi pedometer), most people are only going to find it inspirational if a human leaves the solar system. For better or worse, that's what we prioritize.

rubicon33 10y ago

While I do see what you're saying, I still have my doubts as to the root cause of society's apathy. In my opinion, it's not a lack of inspirational work being done, it's a narcissism and detachment from community, that drives the attention towards personal goals rather that the goals of the community. I think self driving cars are a MAJOR leap forward for man kind, and something we all SHOULD be having parades for. If it reaches the market, it will be the most widespread, and profound application of artificial intelligence that mankind has developed yet. Without argument, it will be the first time a machine learning application has saved lives on a grand scale. It may well mark the dawn of the Machine Learning age, welcoming in a new era where software transcends the trivial 'app' in a big, practical way. Think about that. We can argue all day about why people aren't inspired by self driving cars. In truth, there are probably hundreds of reasons. But, if you ask me they are extremely exciting and invigorating. Uber's PA event was one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago
> I think self driving cars are a MAJOR leap forward for man kind, and something we all SHOULD be having parades for. If it reaches the market, it will be the most widespread, and profound application of artificial intelligence that mankind has developed yet. Without argument, it will be the first time a machine learning application has saved lives on a grand scale. It may well mark the dawn of the Machine Learning age, welcoming in a new era where software transcends the trivial 'app' in a big, practical way. Think about that I agree completely with this line of thought, but humans aren't wired that way. The rise in ubiquity of machine-learning powered software will improve our lives greatly....and do so mostly behind the scenes while the average person isn't giving it much thought. In fact, unfortunately, eventually and inevitably, even with self-driving cars, people will still find new reason for road rage. > We can argue all day about why people aren't inspired by self driving cars. In truth, there are probably hundreds of reasons. There's really just one. People aren't interested in watching machines execute code. For example, would you really want to watch two AI's play LoL, DotA2, or chess against each other. Many kids aren't going to watch. Similarly, I've learned this the hard way. Perhaps 95-98% of users will not care about how you implemented an app even if you revolutionize the field of Algo's and Data Structures. They will just look at it and say, I guess it's pretty fast, but I really like this parallax when you scroll down. Even though I found it hugely inspirational that we made an object that has now left the solar system (and it was created 40 years ago with all the processing power a modern, ChiFi pedometer), most people are only going to find it inspirational if a human leaves the solar system. For better or worse, that's what we prioritize.