Their road network existed to allow legion and their food trains to go anywhere in the empire unrestricted.
oh don’t get me started. The success of the entire roman empire was the roads and infrastructure (also aqueduct but less so). You can trace the success and growth of civilization to transportation technology. Direct correlation, close enough and rational enough (i haven’t run the numbers but I’m confident making an ass out of myself) I’m willing to say it’s causative. The biggest change we’ve seen has been computers, and integrating that fully into transportation (which we still haven’t done. because it’s nigh fucking impossible to get computers and humans to drive together safely. it’s almost like we need a new transportation revolution) will overhaul society. however we do it.
Putting computers on wheels was always a terrible idea. Computers go on rails. We’re failing to overhaul society because we’re using wheels where we should be using rails.
? my 1980s car had a computer in it and she was great. computer didn’t try to drive. it was just a little box the same size as the radio, just under the passenger seat. nowadays i don’t even know where all the computer shit is it’s how much of the driving experience is taken over by the computer. i got a lot more safety shit now, which i appreciate (i’ve been saved from a couple massive pileups in the fog because the adaptive cruise control sensors told me there was a car before i could see it with my eyes, even though i was already driving slower) but like, we agree with You that letting the computer take over 100% is bad.
the help computers give? i’m not going to turn it down. i’m a shitty driver.
Reading the comments above, I wasn’t even done before I was imagined how to write this exact response lol. Guess I’ll contribute this instead:
Roads are for local human freedom, rails are for proper logistics, which is where you want your computers integrated as much as possible. People don’t realize that in WW2, most of the distance travelled by tanks was on trains, not by their own power which is very resource intensive.
my favorite fictional transportation invention was by Jasper Fforde. If you’ve read his Shades of Grey series (it’s the You Can’t See Color series, not the Bad BDSM series, and actually good to read. my favorite books right now) it’s basically a very very fancy conveyor belt that has higher speed lanes (like 50mph lanes) as you get toward the center, and all you do is step on and whoosh off from Reading to Cardiff. Except it’s also made of gel and eats people if they fall asleep on it. Science fiction and stuff.
i like the fiction because it gets our minds churning about “well, how could we do that IRL? is it possible?” about all sorts of things.
oh don’t get me started. The success of the entire roman empire was the roads and infrastructure (also aqueduct but less so). You can trace the success and growth of civilization to transportation technology. Direct correlation, close enough and rational enough (i haven’t run the numbers but I’m confident making an ass out of myself) I’m willing to say it’s causative. The biggest change we’ve seen has been computers, and integrating that fully into transportation (which we still haven’t done. because it’s nigh fucking impossible to get computers and humans to drive together safely. it’s almost like we need a new transportation revolution) will overhaul society. however we do it.
Putting computers on wheels was always a terrible idea. Computers go on rails. We’re failing to overhaul society because we’re using wheels where we should be using rails.
? my 1980s car had a computer in it and she was great. computer didn’t try to drive. it was just a little box the same size as the radio, just under the passenger seat. nowadays i don’t even know where all the computer shit is it’s how much of the driving experience is taken over by the computer. i got a lot more safety shit now, which i appreciate (i’ve been saved from a couple massive pileups in the fog because the adaptive cruise control sensors told me there was a car before i could see it with my eyes, even though i was already driving slower) but like, we agree with You that letting the computer take over 100% is bad.
the help computers give? i’m not going to turn it down. i’m a shitty driver.
Reading the comments above, I wasn’t even done before I was imagined how to write this exact response lol. Guess I’ll contribute this instead:
Roads are for local human freedom, rails are for proper logistics, which is where you want your computers integrated as much as possible. People don’t realize that in WW2, most of the distance travelled by tanks was on trains, not by their own power which is very resource intensive.
my favorite fictional transportation invention was by Jasper Fforde. If you’ve read his Shades of Grey series (it’s the You Can’t See Color series, not the Bad BDSM series, and actually good to read. my favorite books right now) it’s basically a very very fancy conveyor belt that has higher speed lanes (like 50mph lanes) as you get toward the center, and all you do is step on and whoosh off from Reading to Cardiff. Except it’s also made of gel and eats people if they fall asleep on it. Science fiction and stuff.
i like the fiction because it gets our minds churning about “well, how could we do that IRL? is it possible?” about all sorts of things.