[Blindtlk] why is it important to join an organizationofthe blind?

[Mike Freeman]

Debbie:

I'm not Bryan, but ...

I am concerned that any time anyone expresses skepticism re the
blind-drivable car, he/she is automatically accused of not having faith, of
not being visionary, of not daring to dream, etc. Well, just as there are
plenty of humanists and atheists who are good peple and who have contributed
much to this country (the protests of the religious to the contrary
notwithstanding), there are many skeptics (including me) who are loyal
Federationists but who at the very least think that in our enthusiasm for
the blind-drivable car, we are foolishly minimizing the difficulties (most
but not all of which are social/legal rather than technical). We shouldn't
be accused of lack of orthodoxy or disloyalty simply because we choose to
see the cup as half-empty rather than half-full.

Although I remain skeptical that the blind-drivable car will come to
fruition in my lifetime (I'm ... lessee ... 63), I think the research may
have many other benefits and ... I could be wrong. But I think we, the NFB,
aren't putting *nearly* the resources and thought into other aspects of the
problem such as legal and social impediments to blind-drivable cars that we
should be doing. To me, that's not nay-saying; that's common sense. And we
haven't even considered the problem of what we are to do when we reach our
destinations, still ignorant im many cases of the environment we will face.

Part of my difficulty is that, even in the realm of science fiction, I
expect the universe to be logically worked-out so that there are no logical
inconsistencies and such that everything implies or can be extrapolated from
everything else. I think we should plan foreign policy, domestic policy and
everything else with this consistency in mind. I fear me greatly that we of
NFB aren't doing this wrt the blind-drivable car.

Bottom line: we need both optimists and dreamers and pessimists that say:
"hey! Wait a minute!" in order to craft the wisest policies.

What would I do differently? Not much. But I think we're going to have to
put *far* more effort into making software and devices than our leadership
and most of the membership believes. We're beginning to discuss this on the
Computer Science list and in the R&D Committee.

In summation, I think we should proceed full speed ahead. But I think we
should have a very clear-eyed, gloss-over-nothing view of what we're
tackling.

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Debbie Wunder
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 6:59 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] why is it important to join an organizationofthe
blind?

Hi, well it seems to me if explorers before us did not believe in flight, 
telegraph, telephone, penecillan etc... where would we be?

I am interested to hear what your thoughts are about what our goals shold 
be?

Debbie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bryan Schulz" <b.schulz at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 8:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] why is it important to join an organizationofthe 
blind?


> hi,
>
> there's a difference in shooting for goals and waiting for pie in the sky 
> technology.
>
> Bryan Schulz
>
>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  From: Sheila Leigland
>  To: Blind Talk Mailing List
>  Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 7:47 PM
>  Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] why is it important to join an organization ofthe

> blind?
>
>
>  Hello all, I've heard about doses of reality. If I and my husband had 
> bought in to this kind of logic, we never would have gone to college, 
> gotten married, raised our son, and worked. If I had listened to the 
> advice of everyone we wouldn't have taken ourselves and our son to the nfb

> convention in 1996 from Montana by train and went to disneyland without 
> sighted assistance our son was eight at the time so although he could see 
> we were very much in control of the situation. Dreams and goals can be 
> crushed by to much so called reality. It doesn't mean that we don't try to

> plan out things but we aren't afraid to try.
>
>  sheila leigland
>
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