Why We Drive Quotes

“Futurism is a genre of mythmaking that seeks to generate a feeling of inevitability around some desired outcome, a picture that is offered as though it were a prediction.”
― Matthew B. Crawford, Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road

“Another way of putting the problem of mutual prediction would be to speak of social trust. The Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam found that as diversity increases in a society, there is “less expectation that others will cooperate to solve dilemmas of collective action.”12 And this expectation is self-fulfilling; as society becomes more diverse, people “hunker down” and become socially isolated. A lack of shared enculturation leads to a relative poverty of shared norms to guide behavior and, just as crucially, expectations of behavior.”
― Matthew B. Crawford, Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road

“There was one day in particular, on the road to La Honda from Alice’s Restaurant, when everything came together exquisitely. It was a slalom through the redwoods, dappled sunlight playing on perfect black tarmac as I came hard out of a corner, front wheel lifting off the ground. On this stretch of road, there are several serpentine sections where you can see, in a single take, a series of three corners ahead in their entirety, with nowhere for surprises to hide. These chicanes have a bodily rhythm to them that is sublime, when taken at speed. I have never been a good athlete, and can only admire those who move with natural grace. But on a sport bike on a canyon road, for a brief spell I feel raised up from my God-given mediocrity. By a machine! What a miracle.”
― Matthew B. Crawford, Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road

“Social intelligence is hard to reproduce with machine-executable logic. Therefore, it is concluded, human beings must become more like machines, in order to make the world more hospitable to robots.”
― Matthew B. Crawford, Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road