I am happy and the world knows it. They are wishing me birthday wishes. While I am busy thanking the 30,000 businesses, groups and people that wished me, my assistant directs my attention to a group of young people trying to create a game on how life was when cars were around. As I see how they are creating scenarios for their games, I was stuck by how close to real life these young people seem to be designing them. As I wondered, they send me a clip.
I play the clip and find myself in the middle of a dusty, crowded road. The buildings looked old, like they were out of the early 21st century. People were walking, travelling on personal vehicles, motorbikes and cars. I know this place. This was a place I've lived in in my early 20s. My assistant tells me that I can now buy personal music albums by saying 'Yes.' Just as I was about to say 'Yes,' I was distracted by a loud crashing noise. I turn my head to see a car crash involving two old world cars. I go close to the accident scene and see people helping the occupants to safety. The two people involved looked safe, but shaken. One of the drivers is wearing one of those suits managers used to wear till 10 years ago. He was in a fit of anger about how his new luxury car was damaged. It all looked funny to me; how an educated guy like that could call that box of metal luxury and more interestingly why he expected safety while driving one of those stupid machines? I was about to tell this to the manager guy when the clip ended abruptly.
I got a message from one of the group members saying that the manager like guy was his father, who forbid buying another car in their lives. Now, I understand their fascination with cars. Much of the world changed from looking at owning a car as a right of passage to a higher economic level to an unnecessary luxury to a relic of the past in the last 20 years. Many of them changed and have changed with the world, but few could not accept the changes that the world brought about and still longed for the old days.
As I tilt my head a little to the right, I see my 10 Chinese co-passengers. Their country had much hatred for cars and have been instrumental in our moving on to better transportation methods. 运气 was touted as the next big thing of the century. It is so sad that an electric car company named 'Luck' had to meet the fate it did. On the other hand, it is not really surprising, that a company that depended on people travelling met that fate.
I tell the group designing the game that 'It is sometimes exciting to imagine a world where we still had electric cars and we still planned our travels individually. We ran that experiment for more than 150 years and it took us nowhere except requiring more investment. They were unsafe, took space, cost money, wanted us to travel, provide regular service. and the result was still nowhere close to what we have now. It was right for us to have moved on to smarter modes of transport that make our journeys more social.' I tell them to build services that the all-knowing assistants of today make possible. My assistant tells me that 60% of Osaka is in agreement with my sentiment.A French girl joins in saying that it feels like the future has arrived and things will stay this way for all time to come. I nod in agreement, smiling at the logo of 运气.
I play the clip and find myself in the middle of a dusty, crowded road. The buildings looked old, like they were out of the early 21st century. People were walking, travelling on personal vehicles, motorbikes and cars. I know this place. This was a place I've lived in in my early 20s. My assistant tells me that I can now buy personal music albums by saying 'Yes.' Just as I was about to say 'Yes,' I was distracted by a loud crashing noise. I turn my head to see a car crash involving two old world cars. I go close to the accident scene and see people helping the occupants to safety. The two people involved looked safe, but shaken. One of the drivers is wearing one of those suits managers used to wear till 10 years ago. He was in a fit of anger about how his new luxury car was damaged. It all looked funny to me; how an educated guy like that could call that box of metal luxury and more interestingly why he expected safety while driving one of those stupid machines? I was about to tell this to the manager guy when the clip ended abruptly.
I got a message from one of the group members saying that the manager like guy was his father, who forbid buying another car in their lives. Now, I understand their fascination with cars. Much of the world changed from looking at owning a car as a right of passage to a higher economic level to an unnecessary luxury to a relic of the past in the last 20 years. Many of them changed and have changed with the world, but few could not accept the changes that the world brought about and still longed for the old days.
As I tilt my head a little to the right, I see my 10 Chinese co-passengers. Their country had much hatred for cars and have been instrumental in our moving on to better transportation methods. 运气 was touted as the next big thing of the century. It is so sad that an electric car company named 'Luck' had to meet the fate it did. On the other hand, it is not really surprising, that a company that depended on people travelling met that fate.
I tell the group designing the game that 'It is sometimes exciting to imagine a world where we still had electric cars and we still planned our travels individually. We ran that experiment for more than 150 years and it took us nowhere except requiring more investment. They were unsafe, took space, cost money, wanted us to travel, provide regular service. and the result was still nowhere close to what we have now. It was right for us to have moved on to smarter modes of transport that make our journeys more social.' I tell them to build services that the all-knowing assistants of today make possible. My assistant tells me that 60% of Osaka is in agreement with my sentiment.A French girl joins in saying that it feels like the future has arrived and things will stay this way for all time to come. I nod in agreement, smiling at the logo of 运气.
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