The more I thought about it, the more it seemed that the Metro s auto control was an apt metaphor for our lives. Our goal is to put every aspect of our lives on autopilot. Cars are equipped with cruise control, our heating and cooling systems have thermostats that can t be changed, car doors lock when we place the automatic transmission in the drive position. Windows can t be opened. To the extent possible, we have attempted to remove all human judgement from the equation.
Human judgement is too subjective, too prone to error, too risky.
Better to let a machine handle it. You can trust a machine to be objective. There is no higher praise than to say that someone is nonjudgmental. And we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Soon there will be smart appliances.