Got to thinking about this Friday. When I left the military in 1987 I took a job managing a large printing plant (all closed down now). The presses were large offset Hamilton printing presses that were marvels of engineering. Tolerances were measured in 1/1000’s of an inch. Right around that time electronic controls were being added to printing presses, making them much easier to operate and manage. It was truly a revolution in the industry. Cars and bikes had been undergoing a similar revolution for some time. Anyone who ever had to fight points or adjusting carburetors will know what I mean. This stuff has been almost universally good for the average person.
What got me thinking about the limits (or perhaps more correctly the reasonable limits) to technology was what happened Friday morning. I was meeting my neighbor for a motorcycle ride to meet some other friends for breakfast. Last year we bought a couple of new bikes, and each has electronic cruise control (wonderful) and Bluetooth. On one I can even display the navigation maps from my phones on the dash. I was out in the garage checking something on the bike and briefly turned the ignition on (but didn’t start the bike). My phone chimed and said “33 minutes to Hill Country Cafe”, which is our typical breakfast meet up place. I have to admire how well the phone figured out where I was going from a couple of clues (and how eager it was to help).
I figure the intermediate step will be the phone chiming to notify you that you’ve been issued a speeding ticket based on GPS data but full Skynet can’t be far behind.
