I have been thinking about....


...an NPR report from the Detroit Auto Show that aired on our radio stations last week. The reporter was interviewing an auto expert who made the prediction that the majority of the cars of the future will be "electric and driverless". I thought “Now this is great. We have already reduced the language interaction between our teenagers to 140 character tweets. Now they are not even going to have to learn to drive. Perfect. They can spend their drive time becoming even more self-absorbed with selfies.” Then I thought about London cab drivers. A London cabbie has to memorize the location of the 25,000 streets in London. Only half who apply can pass the test. But if they do, their brains are sure to change. Studies show that this rigorous memorization causes an increase in grey matter in their brains, so much so that they have more neural connections. Sounds like a good thing to me. I wonder what will happen to those cabbies' brains when they don't have to memorize the streets of London anymore. Are we just going to get genetically soft or kind of messy? Is this going to be the real brain drain? Probably not. But who is going to do the hard thinking? Are we headed for an even more fractured society? Will there be the elites - those smart enough to develop a driverless car - and then the rest of us with mushy brains? Then I thought “Hang on. This is not the end of mankind. It was just a report about The Detroit Auto Show.” But that is how it goes when you are an NPR listener. The information, the stories and the reports all make you think. Really think. You go places you never thought you would go in your mind. That is what makes me so proud to be heading up Public Radio in Georgia. And I am extremely proud that we have launched a new radio station in Atlanta, 88.5, Atlanta's NPR station. All News, All Information, All Day. Give it a try. Let me know what you think.