Just Getting Started

I still think "Serenity" is just getting started. After a non-stellar weekend, and a few discussions with friends, the user reviews are right on, but the marketing campaign is misfiring.

However, the movie is still going to set precedents and eventually, records. I haven't seen fans this rabid since "Rocky Horror" (case in point, someone in the first screening audience I went to, turned around to ask people "Who's a Firefly Virgin?")

Great movie, and dammit, I'm gonna go see it again tonight, and pay for it this time.

Traffic Calming????

I like this post from the infamous Assistant Atlas about all the dumbass things that are now taking place trying to control traffic, and I have an idea to throw into the mix.

Stop letting PEOPLE drive. Bring on the era of the Digital Chaueffer. That's right, let computers drive the cars. All of them. The cars can all be wi-fi'd together for network awareness of the other cars around them, and all merge and exit properly once we tell the cars where we want them to take us. They'll know which exits to take, what the speed limit is, and will communicate with the traffic signals which could adjust their intervals depending on moment-to-moment traffic patterns.

Not only would traffic itself be MUCH more manageable and efficient, I'll bet it would reduce a lot, a LOT of problems and congestion. I mean, if a car knows that during certain times of the day, it can't go down a street that's on residental restriction, that's good. Or residents in the area have a special digital pass that allow them to move in and out of the neighborhoods easily, even better.

Of course, all the cars would have to have a manual, emergency "override" of some sort so that we could all feel like we can still be in control sometimes...

I'll bet that accidents would drop almost to zero when we finally have networked systems that can do this. They are not far off - I think we'll see large scale tests of them within 20 years. Then I can chat on my cell phone, check email, drink coffee in absolutel leisure during my trips to different places, all without wondering if I'm going to get in a wreck during that moment while I'm trying to punch a number into my phone, take a sip of coffee, AND remember to turn my turn signal on.

Oh, and remember, call it "Digital Chaueffer" - it sounds less scary than Computer Guided Navigation or Autopilot. Swanky. You heard it here first. hahahaha.