Flying Cars

 

A flying car as reported yesterday by the BBC here.

Impressive, but presumably colossally expensive. Can't see any flying "car" like this to be something many of us ordinary people would ever own. It's not so much a flying car, but a car that can convert into a plane, and vice versa. A flying car that looks like an actual car will never exist. It will always look like a plane or a helicopter, and that will limit their appeal even if they were remotely affordable (which they won't be).

And also forget about your flying skateboards.

Life back in 1300

I have no idea what peoples lives were like centuries ago. Say in 1300 or whenever. Were the common people mostly hungry all the time? Constantly suffering from plague, disease, illness? Was life short, nasty and brutal? How did they entertain themselves? They didn't have the Internet, nor TV, nor books (and they couldn't read anyway). And what would they think of our modern world?

And if I went back in time to 1300, what would they think of me? Would I be able to blend in? Would they think I'm weird?

The unvaccinated

 From here. 

Around the world, patience with those who are wilfully unvaccinated is running out in the face of yet another viral surge. 

Those who are unvaccinated do not equate to vaccine sceptics.  Also, what is the meaning of the word "wilfully" in this context?

Why weren't they "impatient" with the Governments of the world not taking decisive radical action back in January 2020 and countless times since?  Why weren't they (and aren't they), "impatient" with those who make absolutely no attempt to keep away from others?  Why weren't they (and aren't they) "impatient" with those who say/said the virus is just like flu or a bad cold, or that the virus will simply die out (eg Elon Musk et al)?  

If everyone were like me, the virus would never had had a cat in hell's chance.  

Me singing "Imagine" both accompanied by John Lennon and by myself.

 

Why on earth do people admire Elon Musk?

An article on Elon Musk.

Surely We Can Do Better Than Elon Musk 

[T]he CEO of Tesla, Inc., celebrated entrepreneur Elon Musk, is a liar, huckster, and moron, who regularly says things so ignorant that I cannot understand how they can come from a human adult, let alone one treated by his fans as a super-genius.

Musk comes out with most most obvious nonsense and ridiculous predictions imaginable.  It's bizarre that people think he's a genius. What's he ever said that would suggest this? He's a buffoon. It seems to me that most people are absolutely clueless when it comes to assessing someone's intelligence.

Regarding autonomous cars the article says:

Indeed, customers’ lives were very much at risk. Tesla drivers took Musk’s claim of an “autonomous” car seriously, and some over-relied on the system and got themselves killed. Now, sensible auto journalists are even refusing to use Tesla’s term “Full Self Driving Mode,” believing that it is false and dangerous. Musk has nevertheless charged customers $10,000 each for the promise of a “fully self-driving” feature on their cars. The fact that no such car is here, and none appears likely to be here soon, means there is already talk of class action lawsuits among those who forked over large sums on the assumption that when Musk said the cars would drive themselves he meant it. As Jalopnik asks: “Is [full self-driving] a genuinely earnest project with real goals and deliverables, or an elaborate scam to get a lot of money while delivering nothing?” If the latter, it’s the kind of deception that one might expect to result in a criminal trial—Elizabeth Holmes is currently facing felony charges for misleading people about what her blood tests could do. But Musk seems to skate through every scandal.

An elaborate scam I reckon. This will be why he's rich, by deceiving people with his preposterous predictions and promises.

We're decades away from full-driving cars, and anyone with any sense would realise they're not coming any time soon. (see all my posts on autonomous cars here, here, here, here, and here).

Naturalism isn't nihilism?

Someone just said to me in a facebook group:

 "I believe there's a reason and purpose to our lives. Naturalism isn't nihilism."//

I responded saying:

It is. It holds we are mere sophisticated biological robots with no free will living out our purposeless lives in a purposeless Universe. Very soon, we shall all cease to exist. Human beings will become extinct. The Earth will be swallowed up by the Sun when it turns into a red giant. And eventually, all life in the Universe will end. And nothing will ever happen again.

Naturalism could not be more bleak in its outlook. Of course, whilst we're still alive, we can enjoy ourselves. Create temporary meaning before eternal nothing descends upon us all.

I don't believe in any of that nonsense though. We have no reason to subscribe to naturalism.

The fetishizing of work

I read the following article:

The Cult of Busy-ness

The author says: 

[Steve Jobs] was a man who lived a life almost completely devoid of any reason to be alive. His renowned ascetic existence was grey and cheerless and boring beyond endurance. And… well… he’s dead. How is this success?

Our culture has a fixation on work. Success and worthiness, one's standing, have been defined by how hard one works and how much money one earns. For many people, work becomes the point of their existence. Without it they would become lost, be forced to look inside themselves and face the inevitable existential angst. We all need goals, and the goal of being a "success" and held in high esteem by others has a certain appeal.

The Bigelow Essays

All 29 essays that won a prize are now published here.  I've only read the top essay, although I am not particularly impressed by it.   I'll be reviewing it in the near future in my other blog.  I'll probably end up reviewing one or two of the others too, but I'll pick and choose the best.  But it's going to take an eternity to read them all.

On that note, Keith Augustine and Michael Sudduth are going to have their work cut out finding time to read them all and then castigating them all!  😁

Apple aims to launch self-driving electric car in 2025

Just read the following article:

Apple aims to launch self-driving electric car in 2025, says report

Article says:

Bloomberg reported that the ambitious targets have been set by Field’s replacement, the Apple Watch software executive Kevin Lynch. He is aiming for a fully self-driving car within four years// He can aim, but it will be a spectacular miss.

He can aim, but it'll be a spectacular miss.

Slagging off world-renowned physicists.

I get people antagonistic towards me as I apparently "slate and slag off" world-renowned physicists. I guess when they say "slate and slag off" they mean my impartial assessment of their pontifications on various philosophical issues. And why do they get angry? Because these world-renowned physicists have achieved vastly more than me. Peculiar that we live in a world where certain individuals, due to their fame, are allowed to spout arrant nonsense and one isn't allowed to draw attention to this.