Archives for posts with tag: Driving

Rob Peter to Pay Paul

Riding and driving.
Similar and, yet, so different.

Riding used to be about transporting yourself. On the back of a horse, mostly. Now using a bike, but the principle is the same.
Driving used to be about transporting cargo. Or other people…

The key words here being “used to”.
Nowadays most driving and riding is about transporting single persons. Usually for ‘work related goals’. That despite the fact that almost all merchandise ‘spends time’ inside ‘wheeled transportation devices’.

On the other hand, both driving and riding are about balancing goal, means and sheer luck.

Goals may not be always chosen by the drivers. Yet getting there is determined by the ability of the drivers to ‘do their thing’.
Furthermore, during the voyage, the drivers have also to keep an eye open for the ‘well being’ of their ride. You know… make sure the horses get enough to drink, fill the tank from time to time, checking the lube oil… things like that.
Finally, but not least importantly, the drivers must cope with everything life throws at them.

Which brings us to the point of the day.
Most people don’t get to decide much. Not as autonomously as they do it ‘behind the wheel’. A vast majority of the jobs open for the ‘average guys’ are highly ‘procedured’. Most people have to follow strict sets of instructions, after they reach their working places. Then make ends meet in rather ‘meager economic conditions’ after they get back home. Driving back and forth between those two places define the freest periods of their days.

The way things are going now, global warming and self-driving cars, we must find fresh ways to let our autonomy roam free.

Direction, protection and order.
These are what a leader is supposed to provide.
According to the current lore, that is.

Until the start of the previous century, drivers used to drive horses. Then cars.
Since computers have come of age, drivers enable the OS – operating system – to run the hardware. To drive the printer, for example.
Which makes sense. A driver – a person or a computer script – makes the link between the problem which has to be solved and the means which will be used to accomplish the task.

Furthermore, a driver – regardless of its nature – must act inside a certain ‘perimeter’. Certain things must be balanced in order for the drivers to be able to accomplish their tasks. For instance, horses – or donkeys, oxen or even camels – must be harnessed to the carriage. But not zebras! Despite zebras being very much similar to horses…
Same thing for computers. No matter how well written, no driver will ever be able to cajole a printer to perform the task fulfilled by a mouse.

Comparing human and computer drivers, they share one thing. And are set apart by another.
Human drivers must assume the task, despite the fact that they are never sure – not even after reaching the destination – about the final consequences of what they’re doing. Just as the computer drivers. Only the computer drivers don’t care. ‘Cause they cannot care…

Then how come human drivers … ?!?
Human drivers, like their computer counterparts, have their ‘orders’. The direction of the journey, the rules they have to follow… and they are even shielded from some of the consequences.
How many of you would start a journey into a completely anarchic ‘unknown’, just for the fun of it? Into a real life completely anarchic unknown, not into a computer generated virtual reality experience pretending to give the impression…

For the fun of it, into a place you know nothing about but the fact that there’s no established rule you can count on…. and without any form, whatsoever, of insurance.

I encourage you to click the picture and to read the post. Highly illustrative for the points I was trying to make. Direction, protection and order… making possible the interaction.
My gratitude goes to Jess3152.