It has been a few years since I have last been on an airplane, and the way things are going, I suspect it might be a long time before I do it again. Part of it is the money. Ticket prices keep going up. I thought we rented a seat, not bought the whole plane. Then come all of the add-ons, extra fees for everything, taxes, and various other costs. Before long, they may start charging extra to have one of those drop down airbag devices over our seat. Pay up, or if the plane loses pressure, you lose consciousness and die.
Add to that the crowds and sometimes the very long lines at check-in, security, TSA, and boarding. I don’t like crowds. But above all, my pet peeve is that airlines have gone paperless. Unless I want to pay an additional fee for a paper ticket, everything has to be done on-line. I have a computer which, for all practical purposes, I primarily use as a glorified typewriter with some communication features. I have a telephone for making telephone calls. Once in a while I get a text message which I find truly annoying. I have no idea how to order an airline ticket on-line, nor what to do next.
What is even worse is that I do not like giving up that much money and privacy simply to be crowded into a narrow-bodied seat on a big aluminum can, like so many sardines without oil. It is the privacy, and lack thereof, which concerns me. It isn’t just on airplanes; it is everywhere.
We have far too much electronic snoopervision. Americans never had to put up with this in the past. Do we really need street cameras following our every step if we walk down a big-city street? Do we need to be tracked by cell phone towers everywhere in the country when we drive from any place to another?
China’s government has been doing these things for years, and then a couple of years dropped the dime on their people. Basically it was the message, “If we catch you, and trust us, we will catch you, misbehaving or not being socially compliant and correct, there will be consequences.” Consequences include not being allowed to travel, being deprived of other ‘treats’ and enforced attendance at social behavior classes. Ultimately, it could mean camping out in jail.
This the fondest dream of every dictator and would-be tyrant. They use intimidation and fear as a tool.
But it is not just governments that are lapping up these opportunities for more electronic snoopervision. Already, auto insurance companies are offering a discount to anyone who puts a tracker in their vehicle. It will record and send to headquarters your speed, how hard you apply the brakes, and a lot more. Some take it further by recording your eye movement to make sure you are watching the road. They tell us that if we are a good driver we’ll get a discounted premium. Just remember, it is a discount in return for being snoopervised.
Every purchase we make on line and when we use a credit card in stores is recorded, and someday, someone might call you in on the carpet to give an accounting for why you bought anything on your list. Or, go out for dinner, or order dinner in, use a card, and your health insurance people might want to interrogate you about your food choices.
Trust me, it will not be long before your AI-enhanced refrigerator will ask, “Opening the door again? We are suppose to watch our sugar intake.” Or a coffee maker that cuts me off after only six cups in the morning. (I’ll have to get a second or third machine as a work around.) Or a toaster that warns of the cancerous danger of bread that has turned into a burnt offering.
Even as I write this, someone brainy computer programmer just made another advance in AI – Artificial Intelligence, and the problem gets just that much worse.
Sorry, but I do not want to share the superslab with a big rig being driven by a robot or AI system. I don’t intend to get into a car that doesn’t have either me or another bona fide human being behind the wheel. Since no one got hurt, I cheered on a small convoy of AI-controlled taxis that kept circling around the same suburban cul de sac. No one can figure out why they were doing it, or how to fix their confusion.
I have no problem with them circling around like that. This spring a turkey buzzard has been doing slow circles over my house. The Olds used to warn it was a harbinger of death.I’m not paranoid, but now I wonder if it is a bird or drone in disguise.
With all of the disgruntling news about the world and the end of civilization as we knew it not so long ago, there is some good news from Southwest Airlines. They took the bold step of forbidding the transportation, either in carry-on or checked baggage, human-like or animal-like robots of any size. Other carriers are joining in on this policy.
Human-like means an AI device that resembles a human or has human-like attributes and personality. There is a similar definition for animals. Their rule also makes it impossible for a human passenger to claim that their AI robot is their therapy-support bot.
The person who wrote this policy claims it is because of the danger of an ion-lithium fire. Maybe. Or maybe they are on to something. If the individual in seat 13A has a robot on board, they could send the message to turn into a Dalek (the arch-enemy of Dr Who in the British sci-fi series) and snarl, “Exterminate! Exterminate!” That’s when the real mischief might begin if TSA took away a sonic screwdriver.
It all begin when the inventor, Aaron Mehdizadeh, brought his 3 and a half foot tall robot named Stewie, on a flight. Mr. M checked flight regulations and made sure that the batteries were compliant with FAA regulations, bought a ticket for his companion, and they walked down the boarding ramp. Stewie was apparently quiet excited about his first flight, and did some high kicks which rattled a few passengers as he/she/it walked down the aisle and was buckled in.
Things went south from there. The pilot did not like the idea of a robot in the cheap seats, and there was a strenuous debate as to whether he was a passenger or carry-on. If the latter, he was too big to go under the seat or fold up and slip into the overhead bin. Nor was he welcome in the baggage storage area. Long story short, Aaron and his little friend were invited to leave the plane.
I am sure we have not heard the last of Stewie’s travel travails. Sooner or later this is going to end up in court. I hope Stewie loses. The last thing I want are robotic airline attendants bringing meals, taking away the trash, and all the while scooping up all sort of personal electronic data about the passengers as they pass by the rows.
Frankly, the last thing we need in this country is a heavy-handed emphasis on surveillance. I don’t care if someone trots out the old line about safety and security. It doesn’t wash any more because it goes against our American ethos of freedom.
