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Shall we insert Robert Heinlein's rant about the automobile[1]? > Despite the name “automobile” these vehicles had no autocontrol circuits; control, such as it
by fernly 9y ago
Shall we insert Robert Heinlein's rant about the automobile[1]?
> Despite the name “automobile” these vehicles had no autocontrol circuits; control, such as it was, was exercised second by second for hours on end by a human being peering out through a small pane of dirty silica glass, and judging unassisted and often disastrously his own motion and those of other objects. In almost all cases the operator had no notion of the kinetic energy stored in his missile and could not have written the basic equation. Newton’s Laws of Motion were to him mysteries as profound as the meaning of the universe. Nevertheless millions of these mechanical jokes swarmed over our home planet, dodging each other by inches or failing to dodge.
[1] https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/162796/looking-for-quote-about-the-absurdity-of-people-driving-cars#162802 https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/162796/looking-for...
- senectus1 9y agoOnly just been introduced to Heinlein. Interesting fellow.
- fernly 9y agoMaster storyteller. Unfortunately his work has dated because of the advance of technology: he set his wonderful characters and clever plots in "future" worlds that, for example, have no computers -- let alone ubiquitous, wireless communication. So it is sometimes hard to get immersed in his worlds.
- forthefuture 9y agoIt's a little off topic, but I was thinking about this while playing a space-fighter simulator; how ridiculous it was that far enough into the future that there'd be combat in space, I'd still be manually controlling the targeting system. A lot of tv shows and movies have this same problem. It seems no one has accepted the idea that the computers will win out here.