Editorial - Change and Persistence

Change is inescapably necessary, being demanded and imposed by the some known conditions of existence and survival. On the other hand, the conservation instinct gives us enough signals against change. From its perspective, we are tempted to keep living the way we are already used to, knowing how it works, feeling we can easily control things and without allocating any supplementary vital resources to make a change or adjust to one.

The familiarity of a known living context gives us physical and mental comfort, while the conservation instinct validates this on an irrational basis, as a kind of "default settings". Did you ever think comfort can be a trap?

Nowadays, the conditions of existence and survival are pointing to intelligent electromobility. Environmental protection and traffic safety will thus gain, the atmosphere will no longer be polluted by vehicle emissions (yet, there are much more significant combustion-based polluters than the ICE engines of the casual automobiles), and the air will no longer be consumed for burning fuel - we are therefore talking about a good on an extended scale, on a planetary level - that greater good that transcends the personal and subjective good.

What about the good on a personal scale? Will ICE cars automobiles completely disappear in the coming decades, even if their stinky emissions will no longer threat to become a critical mass for the state of the atmosphere? Such questions arise, of course, from the point of view of those who are passionate about the classic (conventional, if you prefer) automobile, its history and culture.

We have every reason to be optimistic about the answers. This is because nothing that has become technically and/or economically obsolete throughout history has completely disappeared from human life. Eventually, it acquired a classic, reserved, luxurious-exclusive character and an increased price.

All kinds of things come in here, starting with fine-dining food vs. fast food and up to the mechanical watch vs. smartwatch, going through supermarket clothes vs. haute couture stuff, common fashion accessories vs. brand jewelry, or custom-made furniture vs. factory made furniture. We can even add here the horse-drawn carriages (in some historic centers or tourist destinations, for example) vs. the ICE-powered car that we care so much about…

Science itself tells us that nothing is lost, nothing is gained, everything is transformed. How and when, that just depends on what happens on Earth, the planet where major decisions are taken at the human level – coming, however, as inevitable effects of existential and survival pressures.