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vishnugupta 11 hours ago

> those beautiful times when people actually cared and believed the future will be better.

David Graeber has written eloquently about this

https://davidgraeber.org/articles/of-flying-cars-and-the-dec...

Kuinox 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Flying car is simply a bad idea, thats why there is none.

js8 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Car (for personal transport) is also a bad idea, yet there is plenty of them.

Kuinox 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes, it's taking ages in order to get ride of thoses in of Paris.

You need to not hurt thoses who are brainwashed by cars and keep taking it despite having one of the best public transit in the world.

baud147258 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm not sure Paris has one of the best public transit in the world or maybe that's just an indicative of the sorry state of public transit worldwide. I mean I wouldn't call world-class a system where just a single failure easily strands 1 million people halfway to their destination and where trains are delayed and cancelled routinely, often without information given to passengers.

I'm in favor of more public transportation, but if you think people use car willingly in and around Paris, I don't think you've tried it; it's so bad that only people with no viable choice will use a car. Or maybe you could explain (for example) how my sister in law was supposed to carry her two baby kids to the daycare using an overcrowded metro (and bonus, through stations without working elevators) or how my brother was supposed to carry the equipment he was using to constructions sites he was working. And then you've got all the places where taking a car is a 30 min trip vs 2 hours by bus or public transportation (thankfully the Grand Paris initiatives are helping a lot there).

For now, removing cars in Paris just push them around the city, because the public transportation network isn't ready.

nradov 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

How do people get around Paris when transit employees don't feel like working that day?

TeMPOraL an hour ago | parent [-]

They don't, because that would be the whole point of a total shutdown in a coordinated, all-modes transit employees strike. Ask people in London, they have that on a semi-regular basis.

Otherwise, there is no such thing as "transit employees not feeling like working" - thanks to the magic of economy holding a metaphorical gun to the heads of most people. You work whether you feel like it or not.

pantalaimon 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Flying cars just look cool in movies and immediately take the scene to the future. Movies don't need to concern themselves with practicality too much.

Kuinox 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Exactly why the cybertruck should never have been something more than a concept car.

sneak 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I disagree entirely. Single person octocopters running autonomously would be awesome.

Kuinox 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Catastrophical failure would be way worse.

Flying is less energy efficient. You need to find cheaper and clean energy source.

You need to find a tech that allow to fly quietly.

Forcing to make people walk more is better for the society as a whole.

mikro2nd 9 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm forced to disagree. Catastrophic failure would be a feature not a bug. "Natural selection against stupidity."

vel0city 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Having my children die because someone's poorly maintained octocopter broke down and flew into the side of my home isn't "natural selection against stupidity".

It's like you think the only victims of drunk drivers are the drunks themselves.

Kuinox 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Worse" was not for people in the vehicle but the people below. After car forced us to be aware of our surrounding when walking, flying car would force us to be aware of the sky too.

nradov 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Humans have always needed to be aware of their surroundings. Plenty of pedestrians were hit by horse-drawn vehicles before cars were even invented.

eru 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Alas, that doesn't really work, if catastrophic failure also harms innocent bystanders.

bradley13 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Interesting article, but jeezum, he could have said the same thing with 1/10 the words. You can skip entire paragraphs and mess nothing.

tl;dr: it all leads to this conclusion: replace "capitalism [with a system that] is based on a far more egalitarian distribution of wealth and power:.

drooby 4 hours ago | parent [-]

That's Graeber for you.

"Bullshit Jobs" should have also remained a blog post.