Imagine if in the future each home has a “transportation pod.” If you want to go somewhere, all you’d have to do is walk in, say your destination, and within moments, you arrive.
A person living in that society would look at us today and say, “What? Driving a car? Why on earth would anyone do that?” But we live in a society today where driving a car is the normal way to get around.
I think about this when I ride my bike in the mornings. I live at a location and distance from my office that I usually get to work before people I see driving out of the apartment parking lot at the same time as I’m peddling out the door. When I see the traffic and the clutter, I can’t help but wonder, “Why would anyone suffer through all of this when they can just get on a bike and be there in less time?” And even more so when I pedal past the parking lots to a spot by the door. Especially on those days when special events fill them up as early as 6 am.
But we’ve become accustomed to our convenience. “Drive two miles to work?” Naturally. That’s just how it is. Would never think to do anything else. Car breaks down? Oh no! I guess I’ll have to take a taxi every day.
Korean summers can get very hot and humid. Temperatures might be close to 90, but the “feels like” temperature will be over 100, and the humidity will soak you through in no time. I get it. I work around it. But I also remember that when I lived here 40 years ago, I had neither car nor air conditioning, and I lived just about as far from the main gate then as I do now. A lot of people did. How on earth did we do it though?
Because then as now it’s about our expectations. We sweltered in the heat with a fan “cooling” the house because that’s the way it was. A/C existed, but in Korea 40 years ago you had to be rich to afford it. I lived in one home that had a window unit built into the wall above the door. We never turned it on. Couldn’t afford the electricity. And how did I get to work? I honestly can’t remember my regular routine…but it was seldom in a car (I do remember I had a “10-speed” bike some of the time). On some occasions, I may have run out and grabbed a taxi in a pinch. That was back in the day where getting taxis was a bit like fishing — you went out and tried to get lucky. No apps. No cell phones. Barely had a phone at all.
This is and this isn’t a “Kids these days” rant. I mean, I can’t fault people really because this is how life is done these days — these are the expectations. If no one has ever had to hump it to work carrying all their chem gear in the summer because there were no other choices, well then, how can they be expected to gladly do it when they do have the choices. But I also can’t help but think because of this, they don’t even know what they’re missing. Like there still might be some value in riding a bike to work when you could just take a transportation pod. The people with the pods just can’t picture it.
I’m not silly enough to suck it up in 95-degree heat though. I love our air conditioning. But my expectations are still quite a bit lower than the expectations of others who may have grown up with it built into their lives. I’m still a bit amazed when I take the dog out for a walk on what I think is a nice, cool morning, only to get dripped on by someone’s air conditioning several floors up — A/C that I’m sure has been running all night. In our apartment, the A/C doesn’t usually get turned on until afternoons on most days, and it always gets turned off before bed time. Still, 1986 Bob would probably have been amazed at that. I can assure you though — his expectations were much lower.