How You Live Now May Not Reflect How You Are Remembered

It might just be money.

My skepticism and general distrust of AI is rather well-documented at this point, but I have to confess, I do enjoy riding in Waymos. I’m in Los Angeles this week — I spent Wednesday night watching my Illini beat the holy hell out of USC and will be at the UCLA game tonight — and for the first time ever visiting here, I didn’t rent a car. Studies show Waymos are safer than human drivers, and I am not surprised: They are, unlike humans, predictable, which is all I want from a driver. (As my children can tell you, the main thing I do while driving is yell at other cars and the stupid humans driving them.) I’ve just been riding along, kicking back in a Jaguar being driven by a robot, staring out the window, letting my mind wander, taking in a city I once briefly lived and have always been fascinated by. Like a lot of middle-aged New Yorkers, I have more friends in LA than I do in NYC anymore, and I’ve got multiple editors out here too. There’s always a reason to come out here. There’s a certain awe I always feel being in LA; a town that was once mocked by Steve Martin in L.A. Story as having “a few homes that more than 10 years old” has, I’ve found, actually changed less in the 26 years since I left there than New York has in the 13 since I left there. In a world that is in constant upheaval, I love that there are…