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Joined 6 months ago
Cake day: December 27th, 2025
  • You’re going to have to define AI in order to have a worthwhile discussion. The term can mean anything from computer-vision analysis of medical images (which is saving lives) to a collective term for the historic-scale grift by superwealthy which is going to tear up the economy when the bubble bursts (the effects of which will probably kill people).

    Which “AI” do you mean?

  • UAV meaning Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle. (In contrast to rideshare services, like Uber. When they were heavily subsidized, it must be noted, they increased traffic congestion.) Availability of them will increase. The reason that we have an auto-dominated landscape today is that car makers wanted to sell more cars. There’s approximately 0% chance that car makers today will be satisfied selling a limited number of vehicles for ride services, when they could sell vastly more cars to individuals.

  • Is that realistic, though? A car is already a status toy, what’s to stop conspicuous consumption in the form of buying one’s own self-driving car? Or, say, moving to a cheaper house further from the city, because commute time can now be used as work time? Shared cars won’t work in that scenario.

    Also, rush hour is still a thing. There have to be enough UAVs to handle peak demand, and then most of them will be parked somewhere, idle most of the time. Or running errands. Traffic congestion is bad enough now, with average vehicle occupancy of 1.2 people; it’ll be apocalyptic when that number drops below one.

    Also, in cities with sky-high housing costs, i guarantee that people will live in self-driving RVs, because road space is “free.”

    In short, the only way to realize the benefits of the shared UAV future is to ban private car ownership, and cap the number of UAVs in a city. That sounds a lot like a train, except trains’ enormous capacity offers better service.

  • I’m always ready to plug Bojack Horseman. Yes, it’s an animated show about an anthropomorphic horse, with tons of silly, animal puns and visual gags, and cartoon-ish storylines, and it will sometimes just rip you open emotionally. Will Arnett is a phenomenally gifted voice actor. And despite this, one of the best episodes of television I’ve ever seen is one in which he has barely any lines.

    The usual advice, of course, is that it takes until the middle of the first season to get really good. (The first few episodes aren’t bad, they’re just light comedy.)