Powering the Future? You're Doing It Wrong by AnthonyT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Quote:
"As for electric vehicles - I'd WANT mine to make noise - otherwise, how will I know it's running?"

Hello,

Probably through a visual indicator on the dashboard. That's how I would do it, anyway.

Quote:
"In our careless, callous, miserly way, we have subjected many to mean, restricted, unproductive lives b/c we thought we were better and they weren't 'worth' even incidental consideration."

I have never felt the sensation of thinking myself physically superior to others. I am aware that every system in my body will eventually fail. If the life support systems are the last to go, then I will have a litany of physical and sensory shut-downs that will leave me at the mercy of my environment and my community.

I hope someone will help me when the time comes, either with an invention to help me overcome my limits, or with a hand in accomplishing what I cannot.

I'm just not comfortable with telling them that they must.

No doubt I will feel differently when I am a broken down man who can't do anything for myself. At such a time, I will probably sound more like this:

And someone, somewhere will be making the argument that they shouldn't be forced to accommodate my needs. And I will *hate* that selfish asshole.

Debilitating illness runs in my family. If I don't die of accident, heart-disease, or violence, I *will* be at the mercy of others. It may even already be starting- insidiously taking small bites at a time so that I don't even notice at first.

A thought that cheers me daily.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Monday, August 29, 2011 8:54 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

A Anthony a chara,
Hopefully you'll stay healthy for a good while yet, and that gene could have skipped you if you're lucky.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 7:56 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Magons,

Quote:
Alternative energy advocates are not one big homogeneous entity. People have different agendas and support different types of aolutions. Iguess I am trying to say that not all people who want to see alternatives to fossil based energy sources will agree on which sources should be developed.

I think that's the crux of this issue. And I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with the footprint thing...while I'm a conservationist, I think the extremists are nuts...much like PETA...and they embarrass me.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 7:57 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Anthony, it's funny. Tho' I do get immobilized by heat, we rarely use our one little AC. If it climbs into the 90s, I turn it on (luckily for us, not often during the year!), but even then only to cool off the living room. We have curtains between the living room and dining room to keep the cool/heat in the living room, and the heater is permanently set for 60 and turned off over night. We try for Magon's "minimum footprint" and are willing to suffer the consequences rather than use the AC, but only to a point!

I prefer cold...if it's cold, I can wear more clothes and use a blanket (a heated throw, if I get really wimpy!). But there's nothing I can do about heat, there are only so many clothes I can take OFF! I live in shorts and a T all year long; add layers in Winter, and wear sarongs when it's hot in Summer. In my thoroughly UNhumble opinion, we humans are wimps and do too much to make Nature accommodate US!

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 7:57 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Mike, while at virtually all times civil, I, to, view Anthony as inflexible on SOME subjects. I still remember the "don't get in my way" argument about protesters, and a few others where he has an opinion and won't give an inch on it. Doesn't bother me 99% of the time, since he does it civilly and most of the time rationally, but I'm aware of it. Nonetheless, when it came to the disabled, I didn't think his opinion was all that adamant, and I understood what he was saying. Didn't agree with it, as I'm a "moderation in all things" type, but I didn't get the impression Riona obviously did.

Interestingly, like Riona we DO have those cheeps at crosswalks--stupidly I thought everyone did. Not all crosswalks, but most of them, beep when it's safe to cross. They don't make any sound when it passes the safety mark, I assume because when the beep to "go" stops, the message is pretty clear. The peanuts-on-airline-flights thing did bother me, as it went overboard in my estimation, but other than extremes like that, I don't see it as a "better" thing, more a "make it so we can do the same things as you"...tho' that often turns OUT to a situation where they have more "rights" than regular folk.

The handicapped parking thing does rub me the wrong way in some cases. Like we have a teeny little "shopping center" (which consists of three shops on a small bit of land), and of the ten available parking spaces, two are handicapped--and only used by people who aren't handicapped anyway! That kind of thing bothers me, partly I know because walking is tough for me, but not so tough that I can get a disabled sticker.

The silent cars ARE a problem at times. We've got more than a few of them here (being Crazy Californians, you know...) and my husband had been startled more than once by them as he runs just after dawn. I know a lot of joggers prefer the street to the sidewalk (less wear and tear on asphalt than cement), and for those people, some form of noise would be really helpful. I like the "playing cards" thing, it made me giggle, but yeah, the same chirping as we have on crosswalks would be kinda neat...except that it would drive some people BONKERS to hear it all the time! Can you imagine slowing for a stop light with a bunch of chirping cars all around you?

Your idea of it only being for slow speeds makes sense.

My first thought when I read your "nice to think auto makers" was "as IF!", but the second sentence stopped me. Obviously you "get it". And yeah about the turning the key on an already-started car. I do that far too often on my Maxima. Embarrassing, especially given the noise it makes when I do!

As to me, I've already got numerous things wrong that make it more difficult for me to do the things others do, and more are on the way. I decided long ago I wasn't going to stick around to be dependent on others. I have no family left, and only Jim and Choey in my "sphere". Jim is ten years older, but in better shape; Choey has numerous physical

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 8:06 AM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

It's true that I have a special passion against being trapped or imprisoned when I haven't broken any laws. It's right up there with 'when is torture okay," with me. I suppose we all have issues where we are inflexible. I hope to limit my inflexibility to as few absolutes as possible. I want to live and be free.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 12:08 PM

DREAMTROVE

Frem, yes, that, and it powers back up when it's off. One of the major problems with solar powered systems is a battery to hold the power so you don't get variable power flow, a second major problem is the cost of the large scale set up. Individual power for smaller devices makes sense, especially ones that have their own batteries, or can run off of rechargables.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 1:41 PM

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

It's true that I have a special passion against being trapped or imprisoned when I haven't broken any laws. It's right up there with 'when is torture okay," with me. I suppose we all have issues where we are inflexible. I hope to limit my inflexibility to as few absolutes as possible. I want to live and be free.

Ah, THANK YOU for putting it so beautifully, A!

I think we do all have areas where we are inflexible. At least I'd like to hope so. I believe Niki was more than a bit inflexible when it came to a certain whaling issue a while back, if memory serves. Some things, you SHOULD be inflexible on.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 1:47 PM

Quote:
The silent cars ARE a problem at times. We've got more than a few of them here (being Crazy Californians, you know...) and my husband had been startled more than once by them as he runs just after dawn. I know a lot of joggers prefer the street to the sidewalk (less wear and tear on asphalt than cement), and for those people, some form of noise would be really helpful. I like the "playing cards" thing, it made me giggle, but yeah, the same chirping as we have on crosswalks would be kinda neat...except that it would drive some people BONKERS to hear it all the time! Can you imagine slowing for a stop light with a bunch of chirping cars all around you? Your idea of it only being for slow speeds makes sense.

My first thought when I read your "nice to think auto makers" was "as IF!", but the second sentence stopped me. Obviously you "get it". And yeah about the turning the key on an already-started car. I do that far too often on my Maxima. Embarrassing, especially given the noise it makes when I do!

Thing is, this can be done as a FEATURE, not as a mandate, not in an obtrusive way. You could have user-chosen sounds like you have on your computer (most computers have user-choosable alert sounds and the like), selected from a menu - space ship, bird, barking dog, V8 engine, etc. Make it fun, make it a way to "personalize" your car, make people WANT TO DO IT, and you take away any aspect of them being forced to do it.

The thing is, it doesn't matter WHAT sound you make, so long as you make SOME sound. My hearing isn't what it used to be, but I can still hear an approaching sound from a decent distance.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 3:49 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

As long as they make noises that people can hear I don't care what those noises are. I'm not flexible about this.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 4:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by RionaEire:
As long as they make noises that people can hear I don't care what those noises are. I'm not flexible about this.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

It's funny, Riona - I wasn't completely on your side on this, but the more we talk about it, the more convinced I become that what you're after isn't just achievable, but actually really easy, and can be FUN.

And really, once a car is moving faster than about 30 miles an hour or so, you don't even need a noisemaker, because you'll hear the car pushing through the wind. So the noisemaker, if I'm not mistaken, needn't be anything loud or obtrusive, like a car horn or anything.

It's simple, really. Or it should be.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 8:03 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Quote:
I believe Niki was more than a bit inflexible when it came to a certain whaling issue a while back, if memory serves.

Memory serves. I'm a compromiser on almost everything, but killing things, not so much. Tho' I laugh about my husky, Tashi, it's only because I can't prevent him. He and Kochak both love digging for small, helpless critters...he's particularly good at catching moles. It's literally a matter of toss in the air, catch in mouth, one bite, yum--gone! I stop him when I can, but I can't always, so I have to be flexible about it; it's instinctive behavior so I can't hate him for it. And at least he eats them!

But definitely I have things I'm inflexible about, like child abusers, animal abusers, hunting just for sport, dogfighting, women's right to choose, fracking, over-logging, whaling (except by indigenous populations), self-righteous unchristian Christians, prosletyzing Christians who won't leave me alone, the list goes on. If I recall, I never said I WASN'T inflexible about some thing. I just try to find compromise/moderation in most things, or at the least be able to discuss them and try to see the other's point of view.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 9:47 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
Quote:
I believe Niki was more than a bit inflexible when it came to a certain whaling issue a while back, if memory serves.
Memory serves. I'm a compromiser on almost everything, but killing things, not so much. Tho' I laugh about my husky, Tashi, it's only because I can't prevent him. He and Kochak both love digging for small, helpless critters...he's particularly good at catching moles. It's literally a matter of toss in the air, catch in mouth, one bite, yum--gone! I stop him when I can, but I can't always, so I have to be flexible about it; it's instinctive behavior so I can't hate him for it. And at least he eats them!

But definitely I have things I'm inflexible about, like child abusers, animal abusers, hunting just for sport, dogfighting, women's right to choose, fracking, over-logging, whaling (except by indigenous populations), self-righteous unchristian Christians, prosletyzing Christians who won't leave me alone, the list goes on. If I recall, I never said I WASN'T inflexible about some thing. I just try to find compromise/moderation in most things, or at the least be able to discuss them and try to see the other's point of view.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

Oh, I hear ya, Niki. And trust me, that wasn't even a little bit of a snark; I'm *glad* people have some things they're inflexible about. Sometimes it takes more courage to NOT go with the flow than it does to just get along.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 4:41 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Well, myself... I am kinda funny about the whole handicapped tags/parking thing.

First and foremost, while I do qualify, I utterly REFUSE to get one, for one good reason, and one stupid one.
The latter being that 95% of the time I even see a car with a handicapped tag on the road around here, which is quite often to my ire, they're driving far slower than the flow of traffic, speeding up and slowing down randomly, weaving in and out of the lane, not using signals, and all the kind of things that result in quickly reducing me to weapons grade vocabulary in a damn hurry, to the point where nowawadys the INSTANT I see one, my first thought is how to get *AWAY* from them, preferably by putting them in my rear view mirror which I feel is the only safe place for someone who can't drive...
I mean, it's one thing to have disabilities, but if by either virtue of your inability, or slackerdom brought about by that or some sense of entitlement you are a danger to yourself and others on the road you got NO business driving a car, which grinds my gears worse in that THESE are the people who are always flaming youth and blaming them for accident rates despite a careful examination of the figures indicating they are a more substantial problem cause their vanity makes them refuse to admit when their eyesight and reflexes ain't up to the job any more - I can understand desperate necessity, sure, fixed incomes and shitty, dangerous public transportation, but still it annoys the hell out of me.
ESPECIALLY since when they DO cause a wreck and it's with a young driver, who gets the blame cause of our asinine prejudices in that regard, hmm ?

So for that primary reason, I will *NOT* voluntarily align myself with that kind of thing by getting a handicapped sticker or plate, oh hell no, and one of the things I pride myself on is the ability to drive, PROPERLY AND SAFELY, regardless of physical condition, which saved my ass when I was struck by serious illness recently.

The other reason is a certain independance which borders on ludicrous at times, even when I was really messed up it was hard for me to not be angry with folks opening doors and the like for me out of courtesy, and it took far longer than it should to admit that it was more kindness and politeness than pity, cause I was kind of angry at everyone by that point given the situations that lead to it - anyhows what it is...
If you ever become dependant on some kind of assistance, some kind of help, and it is not there you are screwed, besides which people can hold it over you to try to control your behavior and I despise that sort of thing, so I make a point of it NOT to become dependant, in part cause I have severe trust issues about that, cause people will bail on you or leave you hanging - I was never quite so angry as when someone needed to go to the grocery store, and able bodied people in the house wouldn't, leaving my ass on crutches, crippled with that goddamn erector set pinned through my leg, in four inches of snow, to have to do it MYSELF, when their able-bodies selves couldn't be fucking bothered, grrrrr.

Trick to this, stick your arms through the loops and then grab the crutches, sure your hands will be blue and unfeeling by the time you wobble back through the snow and you'll be suffering hypothermia, but at least the job got done, curse it.

I also do *NOT* like anyone pushin my wheelchair, not that Wendy gives a crap about my opinion when she does it, but I really hate it, and I refuse to use the battery operated ones both cause it leads to laziness and cause a dead battery could strand you in an embarrassing or dangerous moment, which is also why all my prosthetics are all straight mechanical with fallbacks - the borgomatic will fall back to rigid mode if the gearing breaks, for example.

S'funny though, there's some disabled folk who have grudgingly welcomed my rough-n-ready overcome type attitudes and tricks for adapting without the help of others, but the greater majority I have met want sympathy, and I don't *DO* sympathy - which has gotten me booted out of two disability support groups, one of which was so hell-bent on using perfectly politically-correct expressions I took it for a joke, and then when they got all offended laughed in their faces about how ridiculous they were being.. "residual limb"??!, it's a fuckin STUMP, is what it is, find a way to cope instead of wallowing in your misery and expecting to drag everydamnbody else in with you, I'll be happy to help you do so, but if you want me to ENABLE your surrender... fuck you!
*ahem*...

Yeaaaahh... as you can see, I have strong feelings about the whole notion of disability and how one should cope, so I ain't exactly the best source of sympathy for it, but I can be damn handy if your attitude involves kicking it's ass or even morphing it into advantage - one of my oldest friends, and in part a source of inspiration when I got so badly mangled, is an engineer type who chucked his useless cosmetic hand prosthetic out the window and built himself a TOOL HAND, which I thought was just damn awesome even then.

I think everyone has stuff they're kind of a hardass about, really.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 6:01 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

"Probably through a visual indicator on the dashboard. That's how I would do it, anyway."

But then you'd have to be always looking at it while you're driving - not cool.

I've driven stick shift forever, and I have this habit of throwing it in neutral and coasting when I need to slow down anyway (or when going downhill ... Kwicko, don't scold) So, I was coasting in neutral in heavy traffic going through an interchange and ready to merge onto the next freeway when my water pump suddenly and silently came apart, and my engine quit. But I never noticed it b/c I wasn't under power. It wasn't until I looked down at the dash and saw ALL those RED LIGHTS that I realized something was wrong. There have been other times when my cars quietly and secretly quit (I've had many cars that were not gently pre-owned) and I didn't realize it. Noise seems to be the safest most convenient way to keep track.

"I'm just not comfortable with telling them that they must."

Society tells people to do and not do things all day long, to create particular physical and social structures etc. I'm not sure why you have a problem with this particular thing.

Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in taxpayer funded bailouts, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?

Yeah, me neither....

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 6:11 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

"The latter being that 95% of the time I even see a car with a handicapped tag on the road around here, which is quite often to my ire, they're driving far slower than the flow of traffic, speeding up and slowing down randomly, weaving in and out of the lane, not using signals, and all the kind of things ..."

I don't notice that here in So Cal - I think the weed-out process is pretty significant.

Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in taxpayer funded bailouts, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?

Yeah, me neither....

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 6:27 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

I started with a fair bit of pain in my 30's. But if I has known how MUCH I was going to hurt 2 decades+ later I would have shrugged it off back then. My eyes used to be better than OK, now I need glasses to get by. My hearing used to be phenomenal, now I am clinically going deaf. My memory was so bad I thought for sure it could never get worse - boy was I wrong. And those senior moments when you get so distracted by a random thought you forget what you're doing - so distressing. And embarrassing.

I had no idea what was coming down the road at me. I had no idea how noticeably different I would be as I got older.

And according to the averages, I have a couple decades left to go. I really don't know what else is waiting.

But you know, I don't think I become a useless piece of go se just because I'm no longer at my peak. And I really object to the 'work or die' mentality that often seems to accompany the 'disposable people' attitude. (Oh, you will also often find a eugenics undertone as well. For some people, age is no barrier to labeling others as throwaway.)

Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in taxpayer funded bailouts, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?

Yeah, me neither....

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 6:33 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Oh - the other thing I would really like as a car option is a back-up beeper.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 7:06 PM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

"I'm not sure why you have a problem with this particular thing."

Hello,

It's not particular. I've discussed my troubles on a variety of issues, and my ethical conflicts and dilemmas. You must have missed my posts on water and health care, where I wrestle with these same concerns.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 7:14 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

I apologize. It's true that I miss whole weeks' worth of posts to the point where I don't even try and catch up. If you could offhand remember the thread titles I would read them. I find your attitude as foreign to me.

Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in taxpayer funded bailouts, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?

Yeah, me neither....

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 7:46 PM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

Well, I think you'd have to go back a year or more.

The summary is this:

I generally oppose telling people what to do.

But of course, for any society to function, people have to be forced to do or not do certain things.

For instance- Don't kill people. Don't steal their stuff. Pretty straight forward.

Each time society tells someone what to do, they are enforcing their 'request' with the threat of violence.

Don't kill people, or we will use force to contain you, up to and including your own death if necessary (assuming you resist being captured.)

Don't steal from folks, same deal.

But every rule of society has the same path of violence. Don't speed, or we'll ticket you. And if you don't pay, we'll arrest you. And if you resist arrest, we will hurt you or kill you.

Every single law, if enforced, ends in violence if someone chooses not to obey it.

So the question becomes, "What is worth hurting people for?"

Now extend this to a subject like Universal Health Care.

Let's say your neighbor is ill, and he can't afford to see the doctor. Is it all right for me to come into your house, steal 200 bucks, and pay for him to visit the Doctor? If you try to stop me, should I be able to lock you up? Shoot you?

What if you don't want Universal Health care yourself, for whatever reason? What sort of theft or violence am I entitled to perform upon you if you don't pony up your share of the dough?

It's easy for such concerns to be dismissed out of hand. "Oh, you pay taxes for everything, this is no different." But I do get very upset at other uses of my money against my will. Like when I am robbed at gunpoint so that we can bomb foreigners for my protection. I get upset when the police take my money and use it to shut down 12 year old's lemonade stands. Or arrest someone for growing a pot plant. There are many times I am robbed at gunpoint to support actions I abhor. I complain about them all.

So... am I prepared to add new regulations, to put more people under the gun, in order to force them to do something they may not want to do?

It's something I think very seriously about. I wrestle over these kinds of issues. It bothers me.

Now we are talking about forcing a driver to have this piece of equipment so that he can help someone else. And like all laws, this one will have a gun-barrel attached to it.

When I say I'm not in favor of forcing people to do it, I am envisioning myself with a gun in my hand, pointing it at somebody and telling them "DO THIS OR ELSE." Because that is the short story of law enforcement.

But I think people do a lot of selective reading, because I talk about the other side, too. I think they stop at, "I don't want to force someone to do this" and don't go on to, "But I am ethically conflicted because I don't want to watch someone die or suffer. I like to help people. I want to be a contributing member of my community."

I try very hard to communicate in three dimensions about this sort of thing, and it always saddens me to see my communications squashed into 2D.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 8:15 PM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

"But then you'd have to be always looking at it while you're driving - not cool."

Hello,

I think I'd only worry about the car being 'on' when I begin my journey. Once I'm actively driving around, I think I could assume that the car would not spontaneously shut itself off. And if it did? The loss of power, handling, and control would be as quick an indicator as the loss of engine noise.

So when I start it, I'd make sure the 'active' or 'on' indicator was lit. And when I shut it off, I'd make sure the 'active' or 'on' indicator wasn't lit.

Maybe you could have an audio alert for failures, but I wouldn't want any noise inside the cabin if everything was working according to plan.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 9:03 PM