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Richard Dawkins' car attacked by cyclist.
Anyone seen this? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-59488872
I'm not sure which God issues bicycles to their angels of vengence.
I thought Tesla's were festooned with cameras, do they not record constantly?
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28 comments
Cycling nrly 40 years and I have never smashed a backwindow or even aggressively thumped a panel....... BUT whenever I have been minded to it has been after the scare of my life from some oblivious rich old duffer in an expensive car who has completely endangered and scared me, always unecessarily...
Insurance should refuse the payout as "act of God".
More evidence will emerge about what really happened, if there is a god.
Wouldn't god prefer people to rely on faith and belief rather than evidence?
He was very unlucky. Crazed cyclists must be very rare beasts indeed. In all my years of driving I've never encountered so much as a slightly miffed cyclist.
I like the twitter reply to Dawkins saying:
"I pray that you're all safe and sound."
And yeah, unprovoked, erm... is the bloke simple?
The cyclist is perhaps irritated at the virtue signaling from EV owners. Do you suppose Prof Dawkins has ever tweeted "In the current climate change crisis, I am bewildered at the hostility toward cyclists."
Anyhow, with all that AI, the Tesla will have learned not to mess with a cyclist again, and will tell its mates to steer clear. This can only be a good thing.
No camera footage. I thought Tesla's came with their own dashcams and recordings. Maybe he never turned them on.
Three possibilities:
1: He close passed the cyclist and cyclist responded. _Strong Possibility
2: Cyclist recognised Prof Dawkins and doesn't like his views._ Possibility
3: Cyclist doesn't like teslas in general._Small possibility although I would have thought more attacks would have happened.
Tesla cameras are always active. A Tesla dealer can retrieve the rear and side view camera recordings to ID the culprit.
He said on Twitter "Alas no memstick, so no camera record. I’ll plug it in henceforth. I’ve asked Tesla if they can retrieve record."
https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1465669835933761542
Depends how 'Tesla: EV Pioneer' (wasn't that a TV show starring Jan-Michael Vincent?) had been driven prior to the ravening cyclist chasing the car down and attacking it...
Christ on a bike....
Don't take my Name in vain...
"unprovoked attack"
Hmmmmmm, where have we heard that one before ?
Basically, driver relying on Tesla autopilot in a shared mode space, totally oblivious. First thing he knows about a near miss is a rider scared for their life finally grabbing his attention in the only way they can.
This is all part of the evolution of a fitter, bicyclist-proof Tesla.
You've clearly never read the man's work in detail. This could be the Tesla manipulating the cyclists to hit it - which might overall improve the fitness of Teslas. (It's not quite clear "who benefits" here as I'm not privy to details of their reproduction). This could come about by e.g. encouraging a campaign to remove these dangerous cyclists from the roads. So effectively the actions of the cyclist would then be part of the Tesla's (or it's AI's) extended phenotype.
It may be that if enough Teslas are hit by cyclists this will set up evolutionary pressures and lead to an arms race in which the Teslas and cyclists drive changes in each other. Since there is no "up or down" in evolution this could equally lead to some Teslas specialising in escaping from cyclists or hiding from them. So rather than becoming tougher they might become smaller and more retiring as some cyclists become larger and more aggressive.
I'll skip any speculation on whether Teslas can be considered an endoparasite of humans or the opposite.
(If you've a passing interest in biology - or just philosophy - The Extended Phenotype is worth a go. It's a bit more technical than The Selfish Gene but I think the writing's better when he's not "writing down for" what he clearly considers a more "popular" audience).
I read The Selfish Gene at least a decade ago. It definitely seemed like he was writing down. I may give another book a try.
My favorite Richard Dawkins work is of course his appearance in Nightwish's The Greatest Show on Earth.
Wow - just checked that out. I think we can safely say Prof. Brian Cox can rest easy. "He puts the 'E' in ethology!" was not the cry...
I agree, The Selfish Gene was a bit like that - The God Delusion, which is more philosophical than scientific, is a more interesting read.
TL:DR? Is it "religious people are in for the disappointment of their lives and a lot of bad/ unfair things have happended/ do happen in the name of religion"?
perhaps, but as a mere physicist it really did give me a fantastic entry to evolution, and clarified a lot of things. When I was at school TOE was not taught even in Biology (although my bio teacher recommended me read SG - I didn't take him up on it at the time sadly).
The blind watch maker I found much less engaging, and (I felt) didn't really advance things much from SG.
Overall I rather like RD, but it just goes to show that anyone can be a complete brain-dead entitled psychopathic t0sser when behind the wheel of a vehicle.
Isn't that just a wee bit much to read into "Richard Dawkins reports a cyclist smashed his back window"?
I'll say no more at this time, but will let you know when my paper goes out for peer review
I wait for the coming issues of the Journal of Irreproducible Results with interest...
I can assure you you won't be disappointed
Wasn't that the musical with Hugh Jackman?
Nah, that was Wolverine...