<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title><style type="text/css">p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;">Commercial airlines are 95% pilot-less. Even take-off and landing. Exceptions for weather, some specific airports, and emergencies. <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Davew</div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div>On Wed, Sep 8, 2021, at 3:28 PM, Steve Smith wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite" id="qt" style=""><p>Jochen -<br></p><p>Yes, Amtrak is the primary passenger rail in the US. I believe
there are myriad local if not regional passenger rail options,
especially on the East Coast. I believe that Amtrak is
technically privately owned but as "the only game in town" for
long haul passenger service it depends heavily on Government
subsidy/franchise.<br></p><p>Regarding driverless everything. A friend of mine recently made
the point that this is what we do as modern humans (meaning since
neolithic or maybe just agriculture or perhaps industrial era) is
to build things to replace ouselves. The ultimate pinnacle will
perhaps be post-humanism in the extreme?<br></p><p>Driverless trains make a lot more sense than driverless cars.
Even pilotless airlines would seem so since things are so
constrained in air (and rail moreso) travel. Driverless cars
make a lot of sense to me also, but how to get from here to
there... I suspect the hardest thing for driverless cars to cope
with is cars with human drivers!<br></p><blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:202109081938.188JcnY1050336@ame4.swcp.com"><div dir="auto">Amtrak is the national railroad in the US ?
President Joe Biden has been a frequent user of Amtrak trains<br></div><div dir="auto"><a class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amtrak-joe-brief-history-of-bidens-history-americas-railroad-2021-4">https://www.businessinsider.com/amtrak-joe-brief-history-of-bidens-history-americas-railroad-2021-4</a><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">We have an island at the North Sea where we go
every year on vacation. It is about 500 km (310 miles) from
Berlin. Usually we go by train, but this year the train drivers
are on strike so we took a car instead. I believe in the near
future train drivers will be obsolete anyway, because driverless
trains are the future. Years ago I have seen self-checkout
systems in supermarkets in London, and now they appear
everywhere in Berlin, replacing salesmen. I believe it will be
similar for driverless trains. I have seen impressive driverless
trains in Copenhagen, Denmark, but not yet in Berlin<br></div><div dir="auto"><a class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.equaltimes.org/driverless-trains-are-coming-but?lang=en">https://www.equaltimes.org/driverless-trains-are-coming-but?lang=en</a><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">-J.<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div><br></div><div dir="auto" style="font-size:100%;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);" align="left"><div>-------- Original message --------<br></div><div>From: Steve Smith <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com"><sasmyth@swcp.com></a><br></div><div>Date: 9/7/21 22:36 (GMT+01:00)<br></div><div>To: <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com">friam@redfish.com</a><br></div><div>Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Nick has gone dark<br></div><div><br></div></div><p>Mary and I are reading a biography of HD Thoreau and I feel
like I have a better bead on who the heck NST is from getting a
slightly better bead on that aspect of small town New England's
history/perspective. Neither of us have spent more than
glancing careens through New England population centers in our
lives.<br></p><p>We were on our way to visit a friend on the coast of Maine with
an intention of crashing Nick's front porch party on the way by,
for some egg-salad sandwiches when Mary's back went sideways.
We've been doing urgent care/medical
imaging/accupuncture/physical therapy instead. She's
recovering well and may likely avoid surgery.<br></p><p>It is just as well with COVID spiking again... we were planning
an Amtrak run supplemented by a rental car and might have been
able to avoid the worst of the gambit ( not so much our own
risk, but the risk of stirring pots best left under-stirred and
becoming vectors ourselves ). <br></p><p>I read that Amtrak style travel clocks in at 1/2 the carbon
footprint of air-travel... I'm surprised it is not better. In
either case, it doesn't fit well into my aspiration of joining
(spiritually) the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000-watt_society">2000 Watt Society</a>. The more
formidable target of a 500W Society (to achieve a carbon-neutral
humanity with lots of assumptions) doesn't likely leave any room
for long-distance travel unless it is roughly by-foot (bring
back the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_pioneers#Travel_conditions">Mormon Handcart</a>?) Maybe DaveW can
get a friend to haul him into his favorite hot-spring that way
without the noise and erosion and fumes of an ATV?<br></p><div class="qt-moz-cite-prefix">On 9/7/21 2:14 PM, Jochen Fromm
wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="auto">My domain has expired this week too and my email
account stopped to work, but I was able to renew it. Hope you
are online again soon!<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">-J.<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div><br></div><div style="font-size:100%;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);" dir="auto" align="left"><div>-------- Original message --------<br></div><div>From: Nicholas Thompson <a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com" class="qt-moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"><thompnickson2@gmail.com></a><br></div><div>Date: 9/7/21 19:46 (GMT+01:00)<br></div><div>To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <a href="mailto:friam@redfish.com" class="qt-moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"><friam@redfish.com></a><br></div><div>Subject: [FRIAM] Nick has gone dark<br></div><div><br></div></div><div dir="ltr"><div>I fried my network adapter, so I will have no
network connectivity at least until friday. Possibly, longer
if it turns out to be a software problem. Didn't want anybody
to think I didn't love them. If you need to talk, best to
call me at <a href="tel:413-477-6602">413-477-6602</a>. God knows I don't have anything else
to do. <br></div><div><br></div><div>Nick <br></div></div><div><br></div><pre class="qt-moz-quote-pre">- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam
un/subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com" class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a>
FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/" class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a>
archives: <a href="http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/" class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext">http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/</a>
<br></pre></blockquote><div><br></div><pre class="qt-moz-quote-pre">- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam
un/subscribe <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a>
FRIAM-COMIC <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a>
archives: <a class="qt-moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/">http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/</a>
<br></pre></blockquote><div>- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .<br></div><div>FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<br></div><div>Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 <a href="http://bit.ly/virtualfriam">bit.ly/virtualfriam</a><br></div><div>un/subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a><br></div><div>FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a><br></div><div>archives: <a href="http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/">http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/</a><br></div><div><br></div></blockquote><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div></body></html>