After becoming a regular daily errands-and-commuting cyclist in NYC for a few years now, whenever I get in my car to go somewhere ...
... the sheer weight and size of the metal around me seems positively *sci fi*
I mean, cars?
They're basically MECHAS. Right?
A human inside
controlling this weirdly big-ass piece of exoskeletal steel
@clive 7 or 8 years ago I started talking about passenger vehicles as "mobile power plants". We see this now with electric cars theoretically capable of powering a house for days.
And like 90% of the car's typical energy usage is spent moving the car itself.
If we added weapons, they would be Mecha. 🤖
But even in their current form they are power plants with wheels and steering. 🔋🔌🛞
Great way of putting it! They *primarily* generate power, only secondarily exist to move stuff around … and even so do that latter task in a risibly inefficient manner
Clive Thompson
Gaëtan Perrault