Living in an automated world

A couple of months ago I wrote a post, Of minivans and CO2, in which I speculated about trading in my old minivan. I finally did it, but in the end the final decision was driven not a reduction of CO2, but safety. Instead of buying a hybrid Subaru to go along with my Prii, I ended up with the normally aspirated 4-cylinder vehicle but with the latest safety technology, a feature called ‘Eyesight.’ This technology detects if I drift slightly and sets off a warning buzzer and lights flash on the dash. This also happens if I get too close to the car in front of me. Additionally, the cruise control automatically slows the car down if I get too close to the car in front and speeds back up once I pass it. It has a rearview camera which I believe will be required on all cars within a year or two, and this technology has been around for a while! Our 2006 Prius came with a rearview camera as an option. As one can imagine you need to buy a fully loaded model to get this technology, but besides the heated leather seats, sun roof and satellite radio, the navigation system has a way cool feature. When you program a destination it gives you a 2 or 3 alternate routes and the amount of CO2 you will burn for each route! Finally a carbon footprint feedback on your route choice!

In the end, all this whiz-bang technology got me thinking about the downside of the nanny technology that is starting to surround us. Granted, in automobiles all these automated safety systems will probably save lives if not reduce insurance premiums. There are cars that park themselves, warn about other vehicles in your blind spot and so on. Elon Musk, of Tesla fame, is talking about self-driving cars. In autonomous cars, all we have to do is sit and read the paper on the way to work and leave the driving to Hal. Say goodbye to the joys of driving. But before we are zooming around like the Jetsons, are we becoming worse drivers because we have all these automated safety nets around us, less attentive because we know we will be saved by the bell, alarms and flashing lights? And who will need to learn how to parallel park anymore?

Does our technology separate us from the doing and understanding of the task at hand if it is partially or totally automated? Similarly, we have been separated from the messy production of our food by super markets. We don’t have to go out to the barn and catch the chicken in order to have chicken parm for dinner, no, we just buy a packet with a nice picture of smiling hungry people on it and microwave our way to instant culinary delights. Our modern society has separated a lot of the unpleasant realities from our daily lives. But has this convenience separated the reality of what it is we are actually eating and how it got on the plate in front of us.

We see similar changes when it comes to our relationship to technology. For instance, my TV turns itself off automatically if it doesn’t sense any movement in the room for a certain amount of time. I guess this feature is programmed for a certain amount of getting up and running to the refrigerator for a beer or a bag of chips during commercials. My problem is I stream on Netflix’s and right at the most exciting part of the movie it turns itself off! I guess I’m not drinking enough beer when I watch TV. That said with this feature I could just walk out of the room and the TV will eventually turn itself off thus saving energy, but is it ever really off anymore? Most modern devices draw power even when they are just sitting there looking innocent. So, as our appliances get smarter do we get dumber? When was the last time you corrected Siri? We have a for-profit company charging us for information it generates and we believe it without question. Sounds like the plot of some sci-fi movie.

As we improve our ability to automate building systems in the name of sustainability, will we end up separating the notion saving energy and water and how and where it comes from if we no longer have to actively turn things on and off? If the lights just turn on and off as we enter and leave a room, after a while will we even notice? If our thermostats are programed around our weekly routines, will we ever check the temperature setting? Will non-involvement dull our awareness of what the downstream consequences of our choices are? When you pay your electric bill do you really know how the power was produced: coal, gas or renewable, where it came from and do you even care? Or is your bill automatically paid out of your bank account and you rarely check to see what the amount was?

Hopefully more and more of our technology will give us CO2 feedback, just like my new navigation system. After each phone call or text a pop up tells you how much CO2 that call required. Your electric bill will not only tell you how much you owe, but also your carbon footprint for the month. Your transportation system of choice will give you a CO2 read-out after every trip. And perhaps someday in the future, every April 15th you’ll be paying up your carbon tax, forget that old thing called money. If we are going to be living in an automated world then connection and understanding of the actual environmental impact of our daily life choices will be paramount, which will involve tracking and setting targets for daily CO2 use. Perhaps we’ll have a CO2 fitbit of sorts. Or, will we all drift off into a future of increasing disconnection, with a rude awaking on the horizon when all those headless chickens come home to roost?