Judges will start punishing speed demons the…

Aug 31

People won't drive safely until they understand the impacts of speed.

9 Comments

Of course you’re identifying an important problem and I appreciate the attempt at creative solutions. The ladder idea is very creative. But. I’m weary of any article that presents a solution without considering the unintended downstream consequences in a complex social-technical system. In fact most versions of government overreach begin with some kind of common sense call for more safety. The UK is pushing digital ID “for your own good”; lockdowns, medical experiments, vast technocratic free speech control by the party in power also “for your own good”. Thousands of bank accounts frozen when you are doing something the president all of a sudden deems problematic (Canada). Now tens of thousands of people per year are being arrested in the UK for “mean tweets”. All under the banner of safety. So my challenge to you would be, steel man why this proposal would be a bad idea. If another far left party (or far right) were to take the presidency and repeat what we’ve seen in recent years, what would prevent them from disabling the vehicles of those they label “killing people for not taking vaccines” as Biden said repeatedly (he knew this was a lie at the time we now know), or “far left terrorists”? The world is a dangerous place and people make horrendously stupid decisions. But every time a highly centralized control based government has been tried it’s been far more of a nightmare than people having the freedom to be stupid. At the margins more control does work - lock up criminals, punish drunk drivers. But the easier that technology is to turn on and the more centralized it becomes, the more it’s guaranteed to be abused by the same kind of bad actor - the politician psychopath rather than the speeding citizen psychopath. You trade the immediate deadly effect of one kind of evil for a more diffuse and potentially more destructive different kind that is centralized. I’d be for something that punishes people more heavily commensurate with the danger of the offense after they’ve committed a crime. But the easier this tracking tech is to use, the more it is guaranteed to be abused. And this will come factory installed soon enough, if they can get it. And the “it’s for your own good” types will use anything “compassionate” sounding to gain total control. There’s no exception in history to this. No government that was like, now that we control every aspect of your life (China), go ahead and enjoy your freedom, even if the Party hates you! We’ll be nice. We promise.

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Danielle

Sep 7

Love that VA is the first state to pass that law! Thanks for sharing!

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Andy Boenau

Sep 7

Hey, sometimes Virginia is newsworthy! ;)

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Aaron Fenney

Sep 2

American society is so car-obsessed that even court-mandated speed limiters will let you exceed the legal limit. Insane. What's next? Restricting pedophiles to only 20 minutes per week alone with a child?

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