Grappling with the challenge of integrating advanced technology into a historically sensitive area, a new walk sign indicator frustrates both the machine and Avery. It’s an irony of the excesses of the project requirements and necessary sensors to keep cars from killing people.

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 Entry.

one fourteen three. point zero. four.

The Crosswalk

Another day, another piece of street furniture to make sure robots don’t kill the newest residents of the district.

It seemed like Paulina was directing every piece of street furniture into the backlog.

This time Avery was tasked with submitting initial massing schematics for a new walk sign indicator for a historic district.

While the antique version the regular hand and walking person signs was still street legal, Avery knew that the Administrators were concerned with allowing too much antique technology into the district.

Signage alone wasn’t going to stop the newest autonomous vehicles from colliding with people, even if they all had the newest suite of sensors to keep them from roaming off street.

This struck Avery as silly on so many levels: [00:01:00] why are we going through the trouble of massing studies for the historic district committee, when what we are proposing isn’t historical at all!?

As if there were historical robots.

Or as if a new district had any actual historical areas, except the ones deemed historical?

Well, there were historical robots, but certainly not on this street.

Even if there were historical robots, the suite of sensors the RFP required the crosswalk to support was a bit much:

LiDAR, GPS/GLONASS. Bluetooth. WiFi. 6g, sonic range finder. ultrasonic beacon. etc, etc.

the list went on.

It was a complete belt and suspenders operation, and the resulting form left little to the imagination.

Avery thought that all of these sensors could be combined into one sleek monolith, but no matter the configuration [00:02:00] the resulting form was just a bunch of barnacles.

Avery tried to create some order and simplicity but the software just threw it together, overriding human input through the sheer force of algorithm.

Barnicles.

Avery hoped this proposal would be denied, allowing additional proposal ret con to get this one right, even if it was detrimental to the Codex.

End of Entry.

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