Quote:
Originally Posted by P-hack
"Give me absolute safety, or give me death!"
I always thought you were being sarcastic about that, guess I was wrong.
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My quote is political satire modeled after the original "Give me liberty, or give me death" by Patrick Henry.
Our society is too quick to trade away liberty for the illusion of safety. Health insurance is seen as an inalienable right, and not being able to board a plane with fingernail clippers or more than 3oz of fluid feels like we have more safety.
I'm all for liberty, but one persons liberty ends where it begins to affect other people in a negative way. In the future, you won't have the freedom to manually operate your vehicle in an infrastructure designed for autonomous travel. It would put others in danger and disrupt the orderly flow of traffic.
However, you will still have the freedom to race your old-school petroleum burner on a race track at whatever speed your vehicle and your nerves can muster.
Public roads are not the place to exercise free will; hence all the laws about maximum speeds and rights of way. All laws are an attempt to standardize the infinitely diverse desires of people into an orderly system; one that maximizes the utility and well-being for all. Nothing accomplishes the goal of order better than a machine. A machine dispassionately and unwaveringly follows the rules it has been given. It's performance depends solely on design and isn't subject to emotional state, tiredness, attention, or miscalculation.
Commercial aircraft are mostly operated in auto mode. Just seconds after lift-off, the autopilot is engaged. A heading is entered into the system and the plane automatically banks and steers in the desired direction, doing so with a level of efficiency and comfort that is not achievable by human operation. Even the glide slope on decent is often done automatically, with the pilot taking over just before touchdown.
Automation of complex systems (traffic), or routine operations (commute to work) is desirable.