Dual reactions to tech predictions

I don’t know what to make of predictions like these:

“Autonomous cars will be commonplace by 2025 and have a near monopoly by 2030, and the sweeping change they bring will eclipse every other innovation our society has experienced. They will cause unprecedented job loss and a fundamental restructuring of our economy, solve large portions of our environmental problems, prevent tens of thousands of deaths per year, save millions of hours with increased productivity, and create entire new industries that we cannot even imagine from our current vantage point.”

Source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/27/how-ubers-autonomous-cars-will-destroy-10-million-jobs-and-reshape-the-economy-by-2025-lyft-google-zack-kanter/

Either I should be incredibly excited/scared or shrug it off as yet another overly optimistic piece of B.S. coming out of Silicon Valley.

On Eddie’s decision to not kick a man when he is down

“He knew the laughs would bring the house down,” Macdonald said of his decision. “(But) Eddie decides the laughs are not worth it. He will not kick a man when he is down.”

Source: http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/eddie-murphy-snl-bill-cosby-celebrity-jeopardy-norm-macdonald-1201436664/

Are they like me? Do they like me?

Two questions people ask before joining a community:

• Are they like me?
• Do they like me?

Source: http://wordofmouth.org/blog/the-two-questions-people-ask-before-joining-a-community/

On religion: having a relationship vs. having a stance

‘…I make the mistake of asking about his “stance” vis-à-vis religion. That causes him to bristle. “Having a ‘stance’ on it would be like having a stance on your sibling,” he says. “You have a relationship, I would put it that way. It’s a relationship rather than something I can have a ‘stance’ about. It’s a big part of my life.”‘

Source: http://chronicle.com/article/Erez-Aiden-Contains-Multitudes/143871/

“A Timex watch costs $20, a Rolex $10,000. They both tell the same time.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/education/edlife/how-to-raise-a-universitys-profile-pricing-and-packaging.html

Also:

“I asked him how much money he was borrowing to go to college. “Eighty-two thousand dollars,” he said. “By the time I graduate, a hundred ten.” The number shocked me, but not as much as the way it didn’t shock him.”

Who should guide the literary conversation?

Discussing Harper Lee’s upcoming release, a follow-up to the beloved “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a NYTimes Op-Ed seems to treat modern literary conversation with disdain:

“The form the literary conversation takes has changed drastically since the initial publication of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” in 1960, when professional critics led the public discussion and private assessments were confined to classrooms and parlors. Internet culture, where a one-star Goodreads review by a 14-year-old can be as persuasive to some as a book critic’s 1,200-word newspaper essay, has leveled the field. We are, after all, in the age of the hot take, the contrarian opinion and obsessive fan culture, in which celebrated work belongs solely to the rabid enthusiasts, not its creator.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/opinion/dont-do-it-harper-lee.html

Why do 18th century English paintings have so many squirrels in them?

Source: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/01/nypl-reference-questions.html