Malcolm Gladwell does it again. I picked up last year’s Car and Driver when at the barber this weekend. C/D created a 31 page spread on Autonomous vehicles, or as they cleverly put it “Auto: No ‘Mo Us.”
Gladwell edited the contributions of about a dozen authors, but his final essay was a stunner: how self-driving cars are to the passionate car lovers, as digital music is to passionate music lovers from the 60’s and 70’s. There is something about the ubiquity of a technology and service that strikes at the heart of what causes people to pursue hard-to-find, counter-culture and memorable music. And this translated, in decades past, to those who created long lasting memories.
CMIO’s take? Automation, convenience and digital tools become the enemy of personal memory and identity? A thoughtful read and critique of our age.
