The essay How frictionless technologies teach us to prefer our own company – and why research leaders should worry. On a recent trip to San Francisco I did the thing that every visitor to San Francisco now does: I summoned a car with no one in it. The Waymo arrived with the serene confidence of a machine that has never once worried about where to find parking, and I climbed into the back seat, glanced instinctively at the driver’s seat to say hello, and found myself nodding politely at an empty ...