Occasionally, Technology Still Delivers Magic

Experiencing the future I dreamed about

It has been a long time since I felt magic from technology. Last weekend, I experienced that magic.

As a member of Generation X, it’s hard to imagine another generation that experienced more advances in technology more quickly than we did. For example, the summer before I started kindergarten in 1978, our family got a Pong machine. Prior to that, television had been a passive, one-way medium; all of a sudden we had this box that allowed us to twist knobs and play a game on our television. Controlling something on our own television screen was something I had never seen before. It was, to five-year-old me, magic.

Things like VCRs and home computers weren’t just neat things to own. They did things that nobody imagined were possible. Before we owned a VCR, if you wanted to watch a specific movie you had to find out when and what channel it was going to air on and then be at home in front of the television at that time. Sometimes you would wait years for that to happen. The first time Star Wars aired on public television was on CBS in 1984, seven years after it was released in theaters. VCRs ultimiately offered us the convenience to record shows or rent movies and watch them on our own schedule. But when they first came out, it was like we had been given the power to become our own television station, controlling when things played on our television.

My whole life has been filled with moments like these. I remember when we got our first microwave (which took two people to lift) and when we first got caller ID. You cannot imagine the anxiety that came from answering a phone and not knowing who was on the other end.

Although these technologies have evolved over time they rarely elicit the same wonder from me as they did when they were first introduced. Playing an Atari 2600 for the first time was magical. Going from a PlayStation 4 to a PlayStation 5 was not. Every year, computers get a little faster and cellphones get a little thinner and I’ve grown numb to those things. Every time I visit Sam’s Club, all the televisions are both cheaper and thinner than the last time. I am no longer surprised by this; in fact, I expect it.

BUT. Every now and then something comes along that rekindles that magic. Every now and then I experience something that makes me feel like a kid all over again. Every now and then I feel the same magical feeling I felt as a kid the first time a computer did something I told it to do.

Last weekend I rented a Tesla and had it drive me around the city.

It’s hard to talk about Tesla cars without talking about Elon Musk, or arguing over EVs vs. traditional internal combustion engines, politics, and a lot of other hot topics. I don’t want to talk about any of that.

I want to tell you about this little slice of time in which I saw the future.

Tesla cars are an example of design over function, almost to a fault. The only thing you’ll find on the dash is a large 15” monitor. All of the car’s functions are controlled through this oversized touchscreen; fortunately, almost everything can also be done using voice commands. If you want to adjust the temperature, turn off the dome lights, or open the glove box, just press the microphone button on the steering wheel and tell the car to do so.

Also built into the car is Grok, an AI assistant. We all know that AI isn’t magic, but sometimes it feels like it. While driving the rental I asked Grok to recommend a local restaurant. Ten minutes later we were sharing recipes and holiday traditions. It’s weird. What kid didn’t watch Knight Rider and wished they could talk to their car like KITT?

All of that pales in comparison to the fact that you can press the microphone button and say “take me to the nearest Pizza Hut” and, after confirming your request by touching a button on the steering wheel, the goddamn car will drive you to the nearest Pizza Hut.

From my driveway I asked the car to take me to the nearest 7-Eleven, which is approximately two miles away. Once I pressed the little “go” button, the car backed down my driveway, navigated its way through my neighborhood, and took off. It is, in a word, terrifying.

And then it isn’t. The screen changes from an overheard 2D map to a 3D one that tracks every car, every traffic light, every pedestrian. The car reads speed limit signs and adjusts itself appropriately. It navigates through construction zones, four-way stops, and roundabouts better than most humans. It only takes a few trips to start wondering why every car isn’t like this.

I did not touch the accelerator. I did not touch the brakes. I did not touch the steering wheel. Mostly I watched in wonder and horror as the car sped up, slowed down, turned corners, and ultimately pulled into a parking spot at 7-Eleven like an obedient dog fetching the morning paper.

Anyway, I want to tell you about “that” moment.

That magical moment.

While in town running errands, I told the car to “take me home” and while it was doing so, the song “Drive” by the Cars randomly came on the stereo. As the car calmly changed into the turning lane, waited for the red light to turn green, and eventually turned left, lead singer Ric Ocasek asked, “who’s going to drive you home tonight?”

The answer is, “this car.” This car is going to drive me home tonight.

When I was a kid, I thought the future was going to look like Blade Runner. I imagined the future would be dark and rainy. Every building would be lit with neon, every corner would be covered in large screens displaying ads, and cars would drive themselves. And sure, we got some of that. My home office is flooded with neon lights and billboards along the highway change as I drive by, but a lot of things didn’t. I still wear the same brand of shoes that I wore in high school. I still use a physical key to unlock the front door of my house. Not everything made it to the future.

That being said, many of the things we have today I could never have imagined. I often daydream about talking to the ten-year-old version of me back in 1983, telling that kid that someday he would have a phone in his pocket that took digital pictures, allowed me to communicate with anyone at anytime, played videos, could be controlled by my voice, and so on. And that’s just one device. Imagine explaining modern video games to a kid playing monochrome games on an old Apple II computer, or just how obsolete that set of encyclopedias we had in our living room would become.

How could I explain to that kid that a 64 GB USB stick, the equivalent of 27,306,667 floppy disks, costs less than a combo meal at Taco Bell?

Maybe ten-year-old me would be a little disappointed that we don’t have flying cars in the future, but — my god — we have self-driving ones. Not in development or being tested on private tracks, but weaving around us in traffic. They’re here and they’re only going to get better. For example, currently self-driving cars can only monitor the traffic they can physically see using built-in cameras. Just wait until every car has this same technology and they begin communicating via Bluetooth. Wait until every car knows what every other car on the road is doing and we put an end to traffic jams and accidents.

It’s coming. It’s all coming.

I have seen the future. The future future.

And last night, it drove me home.