Iirc they changed it to be more like European languages.

Spoken Mandarin only uses they pronouns.

All vehicles are female and all deities are male. I’m old school that way.

What an interesting decade. Living up to the promise that I saw when the first self-transforming Transformers launched in Jan/2020…in ways both good and bad.

If it wasn’t for all the other bullshit that came with being the decade that first built Optimus Prime.

I’m experiencing some pretty crazy stuff by decade’s end even if we don’t see mass L4 deployment. If radar and LiDAR become cheap enough we could see it even sooner. (I don’t see robotaxis working outside of major cities in certain countries bc a lot of people like their own cars)

How likely is it that L4 either never rolls out within anyone’s lifetimes or is simply impossible to produce with inorganic computer chips?

It should really be working men vs. corrupt leaders that replace them with robots and don’t share natural resources.

Asimo took years while Tesla Optimus (far from cutting edge by today’s standards but would’ve been impressive in 2012) took a matter of months.

I’m surprised that more people haven’t begun exploring the possibility of enhancing human nature through science at this point to become less tribal and prejudiced and more selfless and peaceful.

The world order did change radically during the period 1945-2019 (with the rise of racially integrated democracy), but that mainly had to do with WWII teaching people just how bad racism and imperialism could be.

Transformers movie shit on the nightly news. (I’m going for Halloween as a time traveler from 2012 so bear with me.)

Let’s hope all these gains are sustainable and aren’t built on mortgaging our future.

It sucks that even the most efficient transportation device ever, the e-bike, has its problems. Guess I’ll stick to walking.

I really hope that does not result in an increase in tribalism/nationalism, which could enable something really apocalyptic (a world war or openly racist/genocidal dictatorships).

Probable terrorism then

Possible terrorism

The universe as we know it simply isn’t built to allow for real adventure, and with resource scarcity becoming a thing again it probably makes sense to use a combination of VR/AR and robots to minimize strain on food / energy / water / raw materials.

Can’t throw a rock in this place without hitting a Transformers protagonist.

I’m concerned about the impacts it’ll have on social skills when your car, robot companion, and gaming platform are all the same thing.

The point is that as driving becomes more automated the driver will have more freedom. There are already Level 3 highways in Germany (Mercedes at least).

Vehicles are getting very interesting this decade, as they diversify into living/hangout spaces, software platforms, backup batteries, and even robot/AI companions. I hope this doesn’t further worsen the divide in societies or cut into public spaces. Thankfully there is increasing interest in walkable open spaces that is offsetting the worst of this new age car culture.

Rock and roll originally included Ray Charles (now considered a core soul artist) and Phil Spector girl groups (pop).

Anti-Asian sentiment coming back in style would suck really badly IMO.