{"id":37737,"date":"2018-09-13T09:35:34","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T14:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=37737"},"modified":"2018-09-13T09:35:34","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T14:35:34","slug":"driverless-cars-and-the-cult-of-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=37737","title":{"rendered":"Driverless Cars and the Cult of Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"header-wrapper\">\n<header id=\"header\" class=\"sqs-announcement-bar-dropzone\">\n<div class=\"title-nav-wrapper\">\n<div id=\"desktopNav\" data-content-field=\"navigation-mainNav\" data-annotation-alignment=\"bottom left\">\n<nav class=\"main-nav\">\n<div class=\"nav-wrapper\"><\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"banner-image content-fill\">\n<div id=\"header-wrapper\">\n<header id=\"header\" class=\"sqs-announcement-bar-dropzone\">\n<div class=\"title-nav-wrapper\">\n<div id=\"desktopNav\" data-content-field=\"navigation-mainNav\" data-annotation-alignment=\"bottom left\">\n<nav class=\"main-nav\">\n<div class=\"nav-wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"folder-parent\"><a href=\"https:\/\/streets.mn\/2018\/09\/07\/driverless-cars-and-the-cult-of-technology\/\">Driverless Cars and the Cult of Technology<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"content-wrapper\">\n<div id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1536848465148_214\" class=\"content\">\n<div id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1536848465148_213\" class=\"content-inner\" data-content-field=\"main-content\">\n<section id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1536848465148_212\" class=\"blog-item\">\n<article id=\"article-5b99398ec2241b0df2037e9a\" class=\"entry hentry category-transportation tag-automated-vehicles tag-technology tag-auto-oriented author-andy-singer post-type-text featured clear\" data-item-id=\"5b99398ec2241b0df2037e9a\">\n<div id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1536848465148_211\" class=\"entry-content\">\n<div id=\"item-5b99398ec2241b0df2037e9a\" class=\"sqs-layout sqs-grid-12 columns-12\" data-layout-label=\"Post Body\" data-type=\"item\" data-updated-on=\"1536768485343\">\n<div id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1536848465148_210\" class=\"row sqs-row\">\n<div id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1536848465148_209\" class=\"col sqs-col-12 span-12\">\n<div id=\"block-yui_3_17_2_1_1536768536162_47478\" class=\"sqs-block image-block sqs-block-image sqs-col-6 span-6 float float-right sqs-text-ready\" data-block-type=\"5\">\n<div id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1536848465148_208\" class=\"sqs-block-content\">\n<div id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1536848465148_207\" class=\"image-block-outer-wrapper layout-caption-below design-layout-inline combination-animation-none individual-animation-none individual-text-animation-none\">\n<div id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1536848465148_206\" class=\"intrinsic\">\n<div id=\"yui_3_17_2_1_1536848465148_205\" class=\"image-block-wrapper lightbox  has-aspect-ratio\" data-description=\"\" data-lightbox-theme=\"dark\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb-image loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/53dd6676e4b0fedfbc26ea91\/t\/5b993aea70a6adaccf6f8ddf\/1536768752705\/?format=500w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/53dd6676e4b0fedfbc26ea91\/t\/5b993aea70a6adaccf6f8ddf\/1536768752705\/\" data-image=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/53dd6676e4b0fedfbc26ea91\/t\/5b993aea70a6adaccf6f8ddf\/1536768752705\/\" data-image-dimensions=\"640x667\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"5b993aea70a6adaccf6f8ddf\" data-type=\"image\" data-position-mode=\"standard\" data-image-resolution=\"500w\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"block-435e12495efe1a628331\" class=\"sqs-block html-block sqs-block-html\" data-block-type=\"2\">\n<div class=\"sqs-block-content\">\n<p>We constantly hear that driverless cars are just around the corner. We\u2019re told they will revolutionize transportation and enable us to continue using our car-based transport and land-use system. If they\u2019re made by Tesla, they\u2019ll be powered by magic, solar-powered, super efficient batteries and we\u2019ll all be able to keep living our hyper-mobile, hyper-consumptive lifestyles without any damage to the environment. The only problem is we\u2019ve been hearing about all this for the last five to ten years and there\u2019s no evidence that it\u2019s anything but the same old technological, utopian dreck that we\u2019ve been hearing since General Motors debuted \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Futurama_(New_York_World%27s_Fair)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Futurama<\/a>\u201d at the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1cRoaPLvQx0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1939 World\u2019s Fair<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Technological utopianism fueled by science fiction is nothing new. If you\u2019ve never seen it, watch Disney\u2019s short animated film \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TwA7c_rNbJE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Magic Highway<\/a>\u201d from 1958. It\u2019s remarkably similar to this recent promotional film for an Elon Musk tubular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=C0Ir058iHlM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">underground transportation system<\/a>in Los Angeles. They\u2019re both fantasies that\u00a0maintain our inefficient, car-oriented transportation and land-use systems and help the Automobile Industrial Complex retain its stranglehold on our imaginations. They\u2019re also fantasies that dovetail with corporate capitalism\u2019s fantasy of automating the entire workforce and using technology to eliminate jobs and reduce costs.<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, driverless cars have all the makings of a massive cult\u2013the Cult of Technology. This is the idea that technology will somehow solve the problems of human greed, over-population and over-consumption of planetary resources, and therefore will also solve the related problems of climate change, waste, pollution, and species extinction. It\u2019s an old fantasy but one we still buy into. It preys on our laziness and gullibility and it distracts and deludes us so much that we can\u2019t see basic realities staring us in the face.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Driverless Cars and the Cult of Technology We constantly hear that driverless cars are just around the corner. We\u2019re told they will revolutionize transportation and enable us to continue using our car-based transport and land-use system. If they\u2019re made by Tesla, they\u2019ll be powered by magic, solar-powered, super efficient batteries and we\u2019ll all be able [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[21644,21646,5691,5096,21647,21645,8271,21648,786],"class_list":["post-37737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-survival-2","tag-andy-singer","tag-cult-of-technology","tag-disney","tag-elon-musk","tag-futurama","tag-streets-mn","tag-strong-towns","tag-technological-utopianism","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37738,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37737\/revisions\/37738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}