the death of the Segway

The Segway (that wheeled platform for carrying a pedestrian) has ceased production. They will now become novelty collector's items, things to reminisce about- like the time I was nearly run over by six of them in central Dijon- tourists of course....The idea that police and other paid pedestrians would use them was mad from the start- and yet why did so many buy into it?

1. It was hi-tech.

2. It looked like our idea of the future.

3. It seemed to solve a problem- walking (which is only a problem in a very weird world)

4. It looked kind of fun 

5. It appealed to the left brain which loves wheels, machines, dorkiness...

I am sure there are more reasons but that seems to cover it. What it shows is that we are now in a post-technological world. In the past we just didn't have the tech capable of building our sci-fi fantasies. Now we do. We can have jet packs, driverless cars and kindles....and guess what- we con't need them or want them (or else the collateral damage they bring with them is too much). The reason is that the left brain conceives of things in glorious isolation- but we live in a connected the world 'the dynamic' I have taken to calling it. These nutty Professor Brainstawm inventions are very cool- as whacky theme park toys- the problem starts when they are foisted on us as the 'the next step' (or next roll as in the case of the segway). We become hostage to the pervasive but utterly false idea that the future BY DEFINITION has to look like some 1950s pulp sci-fi mag. Of course this isn't helped by the titans of industry these days being drawn from the empathy deficient, systems mad classes of the world...

But the world is teaching us whether we like it or not. And the death of the Segway as a replacment for walking (now hailed as the most healthful activity out there!) is a timely reminder to ignore the siren call of technofantasy and do something less boring instead...