Having been born well before the age of blind obedience to the almighty computer chip, I find myself worrying about all the autonomous computers that think for themselves. Mostly those that have control of all forms of our daily transportation.
In these days when jetliners have the ability to fly hundreds of passengers into the ground on their own accord, I find myself scratching my head and wondering, why does the Salt Lake Airport Authority continue to fly all of its planes straight down the center of the most densely populated portion of the Salt Lake Valley?
Do we not have a vast western dessert closely situated to the Salt Lake valley? Do we not have a fairly large lake right next door to the airport? Can we not take advantage of these sparsely populated areas?
As the number of flights will do nothing but increase in the future, and the odds of a horrendous plane crash become more obvious, should not the population of the Salt Lake Valley be concerned of these facts? Statistics show that most crashes happen during either takeoffs or landings. Hmmm!
I suppose that I put too much thought into the possibility of a “Terminator” scenario. But having been told that computers double their processing power every 18 months, how much time do we have left? My wristwatch already has 10 times the computing power of the first space shuttles. Let’s just keep buying all the latest “gadgets.”
I can’t believe that this problem has not caught the attention of others that live directly underneath these increasing “A.I.” machines.
How wonderful would it be to sit outside on your deck, put your feet up, and listen to the sounds of birds and other creatures of Mother Nature? Oops! There goes another jet. Sorry, I have now lost my thoughts because of the noise.
Allan Whitlock, Taylorsville
