h. Play

I drove too much in the past ten weeks. And I also read that article:

About a dozen trucks from major manufacturers like Volvo and Daimler just completed a week of largely autonomous driving across Europe, the first such major exercise on the continent.

I can’t stress enough how hard this is about to change our current state of affair. I can’t stop thinking about it:

– Millions of jobs connected immediately superfluous. Where we needed ten people for logistics we’ll now need maybe two or three? The fact that technology takes care of hard and dangerous tasks is great, now it really asks our society how do we live when jobs get destroyed in a few years? We know how, I just hope autonomous vehicles will spark a serious conversation about that. Right now the media tells the story of the evil Uber that everyone uses, a company who doesn’t compensate its drivers as it should but Uber is already at the next step, guys.

– My fantasy/anime imagination sees fleets of self-driving trucks attacked by old rebels who still know how to drive real cars with real sticks and dirty gas with youngsters hacking those robots through AR. Mad Max meets The Matrix.

– My foster uncle is a veteran truck driver. He drove through Europe for three decades. He connected with other truck drivers. He learned to speak a bit of English, German, Spanish, Polish, Italian. Trucks drivers shared stuff from their countries. We’re going to lose that. We’re going to be even more inside our bubbles and stranger to each other.

– No more tragedy with overworked truck drivers killing people. We put a stop on that on day one autonomous trucks hit the road. I had a big truck drifting on me on the I-5, I moved to the left and I saw the driver being tired as fuck. This needs to never happen.

– Yes the possibility to work, have sex, sleep do weird deals in self-driving cars is going to go up by 45,000%.

– I look at cities like LA and I feel like train is not the answer at all. That road network is perfect for self-driving cars. Peer to Peer. Door to Door.

– Which means biking will be safer than ever, yay.

– It’s going to democratize transportation to the max. My generation will be the first to get old and unable to drive and that will not be a problem at all, we will still be able to go anywhere. I still remember when my grandfather couldn’t navigate around town anymore. Huge hit on the moral, man. No need for grandkids to drive them around!

Overall way less stress. I can’t wait.

Just chilling for five minutes. 15 days to go. Or is it 3 weeks? Damn.

AlphaGo. I’m one of those nerds who was fascinated by the fact that mastering Go was a big milestone in AI and years maybe, probably, decades away. Done.

This is where we are, again. This time it’s going to go way faster. This is still the best article on AI and its implications. We’re deep into elections talking about minimum wage when we should talk about vouchers and basic income because work to get money is about to become… Rare.

NBA. I’m watching the Warriors ridiculous stats and of course Stephen Curry who’s changing the game. To give an idea of scale he put more 3 pointers in one season than Magic Johnson in his entire career (16 years at the Lakers). On his birthday last season, Curry ranked 59th in all time career made three-pointers. One year later, he ranks 25th.

Witnessing something special here. But I’m more interested in the match VS the Spurs. Who didn’t do so well last year. This season everyone is forgetting about them because of the Blue and Yellow but they’re damn strong. I love Kawhi, even more now that I have read that article. Saving money and building a modern house? Dude’s my dude. And what a great player, great vision. It’s going to be very interesting. Warriors defending a title with stellar basketball, Spurs super hungry and knowing that it’s the last time they can with the Old Guard –Duncan Parker Ginobili- win that championship and set the New Guard –Leonard Aldridge Mills- on a quest to keep the Spurs dynasty shine. Unless KD and Russell Westbrook show up? What about the East? Ha! yeah right.

Damn I’m into it. People call 3 pointers snipers which makes me think of CounterStrike, obviously. It’s a classic game design rule: make something powerful (3 pts in one shot, one bullet one kill) but make it expensive (you miss your 3 rebound is very likely to be for the other team, you miss your snipe shot, you’re vulnerable as hell for half a second).

Every time it works 100% of the time, creating dramatic events within the game would it be on a court with a ball or inside a computer with a mouse.

I’m grabbing my bass, putting my fingers in position. My right hand on the neck, sliding, pinching, muting, slapping, squeezing those four strings in many different ways. The metallic coil flows under my fingertip skin, softly abrasing them. I can feel each one of the little rods that are composing a bass string. My mind magically transforms all that information into notes that make you want to move. It feels good.

Now touching screens and activating faucets through motion activated systems –just move your hand in front of a sensor- are making me feel… Sad? Something is missing.

I know it’s not just me aging or being a musician when I see kids with tablets. They play with the one physical button ten times more than the touchscreen. Haptic feedback is satisfying. I mean it’s not weird, we live in a real 3D world with texture and we have nerves in our bodies to feel all that.

But in the digital world these days, we lack this element. I’m enjoying typing on a real keyboard with all my fingers receiving instant feedback more than before, these days. Using the mouse too. I like trackpads but the left click on a mouse is very, very satisfying compared to tapping a hard, information-less surface.

So engineers are working hard at simulating that. Using vibrations. That require motors. Which require a LOT of power. Which is a pain for batteries. There are already so many cables involved with VR/AR and it’s going to get even crazier…

Anyway if future generations are soulless psychopaths grossed out by the outdoors, blame the touchscreen upbringing.

Working like crazy. Driving a lot. Nine weeks to go.

Music and sound design: HP