Original X-roads-2003

    I watched a driverless white bus pass by, the windows of some of the seats were blacked out. As the bus moved past I glanced in one of the clear windows and saw what was going on. Each person that was seated near a window, had the window in use for something else. It was like the windows were televisions, computers, or cellular phones. Everyone was watching or doing something different. I wondered how the person on the video call chatted so calmly while the guy next to her screamed over a sports match on his window.
    I’d never seen such tolerant people before. Everywhere I looked everything flowed in an unnatural yet normal way. No one bumped into another person accidentally, no one seemed to drop their packages, or stumble when they walked. There was no casual conversation on the street, it was almost silent. People walked past each other, barely acknowledging the other was there.
    There were so few people out on the street too, or driving around for that matter. The whole time we were out I couldn’t have seen more than ten people on any given block, and I was talking on both sides of the streets. As for cars there wasn’t more than four, ever. Mostly there was none, one, or two driving on the street. Some cars had drivers, others didn’t, and some cars were empty and driving themselves.