While giving a speech at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) last Friday (16 February), Larry Page presented a couple of stupid ideas that he said would help solve some worldwide problems:
Firstly, to reduce the number of road-deaths he suggested letting computers guide cars. "I am pretty sure if computers guided cars, a lot fewer people would die." Come on, Larry, do you honestly think people are going to relinquish control of their cars to some dumb computer? Maybe in a 'Police State' they would. As far as reliability of computer guidance goes, take a look at the results of the latest 'Grand Challenge' sponsored by DARPA. How many of those vehicles crashed, for no apparent reason? Larry, the day a computer guided car can win the 'Baja 1000' is the day I'll let it take over my car.
Secondly, (and more stupidly) Larry reckons us Africans should all start flying around in ultra-light aircraft because he doesn't think we need roads in under-developed parts of the continent. Sure Larry, I'll just keep on sending my 9 year-old sister on a daily 10 mile walk through the bush to school. We'll just leave the bus under the tree - who needs roads!?
Where are all the certified 'flight schools' where we'll be getting our commercial pilot's licenses? How are we even going to pay for the license, let alone the airplanes? The majority of Africans cannot even afford to feed their children.
Who is going to maintain the planes and keep them airworthy? Who is going to verify the planes' airworthiness? The FAA? How? Who is going to control these fleets of 'air taxi's'? Corrupt governments? Rebel fighters? Who is going to build and maintain the infrastructure required to safely fly these planes in remote rural areas?
Hey Larry! Wake up! You fell asleep behind your computer screen!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
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