Getting Directions
**Start of Recording**
This is an unedited transcript. I am recording myself while driving. Normally I compose on the keyboard. But I’m dictating this because I have to drive my son across town to a baseball game, and there are a few things I have to get off my chest.
Hey, Siri. Get directions to Bradbury Park.
Getting directions. Head northwest on Huxley Drive.
Nobody thinks anymore. Everyone is letting technology do their thinking for them. They want to write something, they use ChatGPT. They want to watch a movie, they let Netflix choose. They want to speak a foreign language, they let Google translate. Heaven forbid they think for themselves.
Turn left onto Collins Street.
Dad, are you sure this is the right way?
Siri says so, Peter. Where was I? Oh yes. What’s the first thing people do when they get up in the morning? They look at their phones. When people are with family, are they talking? No. They’re looking at their phones. They’re more polite to machines than to people.
Continue straight to stay on Collins Street.
Thank you, Siri.
Dad, this doesn’t look right.
Not now, Peter.
People are completely reliant on technology. They’ve retreated into the internet. They’re lost in a virtual space. They don’t pay attention to the world around them.
Turn right onto Atwood Street.
Dad, that guy’s yelling at us.
Hey, moron! That’s a one-way street!
Never mind about him, Peter. He’s not paying attention.
People’s brains are beginning to atrophy. They accept what the machines tell them uncritically. And yet they say machines are mindless? No. The machines aren’t mindless. It’s the people who are mindless.
Continue on Atwood Street until you reach McCarthy Road.
Dad, you just went around a roadblock.
It’s fine, Peter. Siri says the road is open.
Picking up that thought again. Don't people realize the consequences of their mindlessness?
Turn left onto McCarthy Road.
All common sense is lost. Am I the only one who sees this?
You’ve arrived at your destination. Brady Park. 1520 Orwell Street.
Brady Park? Brady Park??? I said Bradbury! Where the heck are we?
Told you, dad.
Son of a
**End of Recording**
I like maps because you can see all the possibilities. But I am old. Probably most people can't read maps. I will also admit I use google to give me directions sometimes.