After work today, I took Ben out to practice driving on busy and twisty roads. He did a great job of staying in the middle of the lane. He maybe needs to look up and see the traffic light ahead is red. Or yellow. Really, he should just look up. He went faster than he’s ever gone. At no point did I feel like I was going to die, although I did brace my entire body against the seat and the car frame. Twice.
When we got back, I checked my texts to find this photo and many smiley emojis. My dear child, 22 years young, with her first major purchase. I called immediately. Did you know you can get your motorcycle license without ever riding a motorcycle on a road? No? Me either. She stalled out a bunch of times driving it home, and learned that car drivers aren’t into that. She’s excited and happy, and uncertain and cautious.
I’m thinking about risk assessment. Years ago, Mark was talking to me about his engineering work and explained how a part of equipment design is to “fail to a safe state.” This always made a lot of sense to me. I liked the idea of life working this way.
This may be possible with machines. With a life?
