Update: I’m alive! And moving to Germany
Disclaimer: I’ve actually been in Berlin for a week and a half now, but I wrote this immediately beforehand and then let it sit. Alas! Real updates from Berlin coming soon, too.
Anyways. I’m still terrible at finishing/publishing things, and college is hard; however, in exciting news, I’m going abroad, which should be a good opportunity to slow down a little.
In the time since we last talked, three particularly noteworthy experiences took place:
- I took a class all about urban planning this summer. A lot of its arguments had to do with how cars suck for society. It was a vibe.
- I took another class, called “Ethics and Equity in Transportation Systems,” that was glorious, and filled my head with thoughts about AVs (autonomous vehicles), policy making, and a not-so-dystopian future.
- I read some books! Namely Why we Drive: Moving towards a Philosophy of the Open Road, by Matthew Crawford, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars? by James Wilt.
Coming out of this set of experiences, I have a set of starkly-contrasting hypotheticals for the future, mainly premised on the role of capitalism. On one hand, AVs could revolutionize the “last mile” problem and work brilliantly with public transit. On the other, they could simply further the trajectory of dystopian, private, individualized transit — with the added twist of unprecedented surveillance.
This is interesting stuff, because in THREE DAYS YIKES I’m moving to Germany, a place that has a thriving auto industry, a thriving public transit sector… AND generally gives a damn about privacy. Three — okay, fine, two, depending upon how you feel about American cars — things that aren’t so big here.
We’ll see what there is to learn, and hopefully some of it will morph into writing material. But also, if it doesn’t… hopefully I’ll publish some of the stuff I’ve been sitting on since roughly a year ago. Stay tuned!
