Thanks. I'm sure naysayers will argue what does this commentary have to do with riding. Riding a bike and exploring the places it can take you embodies freedom. Expressing one's self here unabated also is freedom. Securing a good job is an opportunity to exchange skills for money. The ability to create wealth and own property are also freedoms. It used to be called the American dream. So those that enjoy riding and exploring should be thinking about freedom. Without which those pleasures go away one little bit at a time. We're seeing this with our riding places disappearing to misguided special interest groups and government land management practices by closure. To quote a line from the Guess Who's 1969 hit single "Undun" - Too many churches and not enough truth. My hopes are people will become more aware of their surroundings and find common sense along that pathway of discovering truth. If we can unite under our flag and constitution, all of us will enjoy a better ride on the vehicle of our choice. As for America, I'm not blind to its jaded past or mistakes our nation has made. But throwing the baby out with the bathwater isn't the answer. This North Korean Girl escaped tyranny and now lives free in America. She appreciates the freedom because she lived without it. Her take on what she hears from America's WOKE culture is very compelling.

AI is this thread's topic. It's the next technological breakthrough. And the nation(s) that gets there first will have a significant strategic advantage. I hope it's America and I think we'll manage it better than China or Russia, for example. China has evolved this technology to point of creating news anchors so real they can't be distinguished from humans. Going back to WWII, what would have happened if the German's heavy water research put nuclear weapons in their hands instead of the US? Our Manhattan Project put us ahead. I'm not endorsing nuclear weapons but simply sighting how technology (in peace and war) can change the world. Hopefully for the betterment of mankind. As for AI, I prefer Musk over Gates but that may be asking for death by fire or extreme heat. As always time will tell.

Oh, I could correlate this discussion into riding pretty easily! LOL!

Take my KTM bike that "knows" exactly how much brake "I" want at all times much better than "I" really do! Its just one of the artificial intellegence built into the ecu that this bike has, among a few other items like how much throttle I really want and when its "too much for you, pal"!!!

Getting back on the Yammy, its like doing a whole lesson in the first 5 minutes of riding the bike! Nothing like having a bike that just lets me determine what I need or want, when I want, every time.

As I've said before, its only going to get worse. Just wait til they come out with a bike that rides itself! No need to learn how to ride, you just plug in a waypoint or two and sit there, hold on and enjoy the mountain air and scenery as the bike rumbles up a rocky hill or down a slippery trail!!! I'd like to lol right now, but sadly, we all know this will become a reality in the years to come...

"Life is definitely much faster and more complicated than it was 50-75 years ago. It's also much safer and more comfortable. Some facets of that would be considered good, some bad. Depends on who you ask" I remember 50 years ago like it was yesterday. And yes, there were certainly problems. Things were far from perfect. It was not a fairy tale world by any means. But for me, it was infinitely a lot better than it is now. I don't want faster and more complicated. In fact, I want the exact opposite. I don't see it as being safer. Yes there are a lot more safety "devices", but people themselves have become a lot dumber, and don't know or care about how to do things the way they did back then. Riding a motorcycle on the streets and highways has become several times more dangerous than it was 50 years ago when I started. Mostly due to more traffic, and speed crazed, distracted "vehicle operators" who don't seem to have a clue how to drive. They are in a big hurry, and are trying to do too many things at once. People need to slow down. Stop and smell the roses. We are all going to reach the end soon enough anyway. As for being more comfortable, again, for me it's exactly the opposite. Sometimes I'm afraid to walk out the front door, things are so crazy out there. People don't know their neighbors anymore. They have a thousand "friends", on Facebook, but don't even know who lives next door (actually, in my case, I do)

In my opinion, technology is the main cause of most of our problems. I grew up on farms, and moved into a what was back then a small town when I was 16, in 1975. That's when we got out first phone. I don't remember having any issues at all living without a phone. It was my younger sister who wanted the phone. At least it was a real phone, attached to the wall with a cord. Even so I never answered it, and felt very uneasy every time it rang. In fact I almost never used it. Today I have a '90s style flip phone that doesn't really do anything that home phone didn't do, other than it has voice mail and you can take it with you. The voice mail does allow me to turn the ringer off and just check it once in a while. If a call was important, they could leave a message. I got my first computer in 1995. It was not connected to the internet, which didn't exist back then, and I thought it was a cool fun toy. Little did I know what a monster that kind of technology would turn into. Now every part of our lives is controlled by it. Big tech, the mainstream media, and the government all use it to make our lives miserable. Perhaps the worst part of it is those "stupid phones" that people simply cannot put down. Their lives are completely controlled by those phones. They use them for everything. I could lose my phone for days without even missing it. I pulled up in front of a store a while back, and there were 2 people walking toward each other on the sidewalk. But they weren't paying any attention to where they were going. They were both looking down, banging away on their phones. I sat there and watched them walk right into each other. I sat in a restaurant and watched 4 people sitting at a table, but they were not even talking to each other. Or looking at each other. All four of them were playing with their phones. Another time I was in a restaurant, and they got all upset because I didn't have one of those stupid phones. They had one of those little square symbols on the table, and you were supposed to scan it with your stupid phone, and access the menu on the phone. It took them at least 10 minutes to bring an actual menu, and when they finally did, I told them I was no longer hungry and walked out. Yes, I had literally lost my appetite. This is supposed to be better? Certainly not for me. People using those phones while they are supposed to be driving have killed more people than drunk drivers.

There is an episode of Star Trek the original 1960s series called "The Ultimate Computer" that clearly shows what can happen when computers become powerful enough to take over, and they don't have an off switch. They are talking about self driving cars, and Elon Musk is talking about "transhumanism". Actually implanting computers into humans to create computerized people, much like the Borg on Star Trek the next generation. Literally controlling people with computers from the inside. Just like AI and genetic engineering, people are actually working on it. It reminds me of a line from Jeff Goldblum in the original Jurassic Park. "Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn't stop to think if they should" And I believe it is that attitude that will ultimately destroy humanity. Those working on inhuman stuff like this accept no responsibility for what they are creating. J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the team that created the first atomic bomb was like that, until he saw the result of what he had helped to create, then regretted what he had done. Just think how much safer and less stressful life would be if nuclear weapons didn't exist. I live within the kill zone of a nuclear powerplant. Look at Chernobyl and Fukushima. And now they want to build 10 times as many nuclear powerplants that are supposed to be "green"?

In my opinion, technology is totally out of control, and is not only ruining our lives, but will eventually completely destroy us. To anyone who hasn't read the book "1984" by George Orwell, I highly recommend it. It took a little longer than Orwell thought, but everything in that book is coming true right in front of us. And technology is making it possible. Someone on another motorcycle forum I belong to uses this as his signature line. "I definitely don't like what the future looks like. I'm glad I won't have to live in it” Pretty well sums up my feelings.

As for motorcycles, 50 years ago I wanted just about every new motorcycle out there. Today there is not a single new motorcycle I want. While I can no longer ride my XT the way it was intended to be ridden (offroad) with what I consider to be acceptable safety, I am having second thoughts about selling it. I like just looking at it, listening to it run, and tinkering with it. It is an actual machine. There are no computers on it. And if I don't get another bike (I have seven, none of them have computers) I do still have room for it. I find it really odd, that with almost everything on "modern" motorcycles being controlled by computers, they still have tube type tires, something most cars quit using in the late '40s. If the XT had tubeless tires, I would still consider it reasonably safe to ride out in the desert by myself.

Well Jerry, I can only say that I have to agree with you! I may not be quite as old as you (54), but I can recall the early 70's like it was yesterday too. Things were definitely uncomplicated back then, and I can recall as a kid tearing down mopeds and dirt bikes to rebuild them, even at 14 or 15 years old, and I don't recall having any problems putting them back together and having them start right back up with no issues!

There aren't many bikes out there that really impress me either, but I did get a KTM 390adv last year for a bit more ability to ride whenever I want and not have to worry about impeding traffic. I think that's the most dangerous part of riding a smaller bike on the roads now, its not fast enough to keep up with the speed of traffic, and the lack of attention by other drivers nowadays just amplifies that issue. I found myself really beating on the old '93 xt225 just to make sure I wasn't holding up traffic or getting into a position where I was blocked in and had no way to get out of situations, I'm sure those of you who ride on the streets know what I mean when you get "caged in".

Its unfortunate, but technology isn't going to go away, and it will only get integrated more into our lives. I have been saying this for a bit now, "I'm glad I have more time behind me than I do in front of me"! Personally, I'd love to go back to having my phone mounted to a wall with a 20 foot cord on the handset!