Thoughts while (electric) leaf-blowing:
- technology as [perceived] obligation: "It takes less time for you to do X, so now you don't need that 'free' time anymore."
- technologically-enabled obligation as theft: "...therefore you don't need as much free time." and "now you have to do X, because it's easy"
I wonder how many people unconsciously feel grateful to $current_techbro_god whenever some bit of tech makes their lives easier. (Put another way: Do they bless Elon Musk for washing their dishes?)
@ionizedgirl Chain of thinking:
- oh hey, this is great -- now I can actually keep our sidewalks clean, like the city wants us to!
- hmm, was this always a requirement? maybe it only became a thing when it got so easy to do...
(I suspect that it always was a requirement, but also people had more free time and energy for home-life -- because it was understood that you needed that time in order to keep up.)
On a less obligation-related note, it looks like this will also finally make it possible for us to keep the slate pathways and patio clear, where in the past we've had to go on an archaeological dig to uncover them every decade or so. (Are patios and slate pathways also artifacts of assumed leisure time? The answer to that question seems to lie in the question of whether there are less labor-intensive ways to make pathways of equivalent quality.)
@woozle "The leaf blowers... is there anything more pointless?" - William Shatner quote that lives in my head rent free for some reason