another attempt at a (knowingly!) overblown “literary” telling of a small event from 2015
The planet cast a long, dark shadow into the stream of light from the system’s star: it was in this occlusion that he travelled, his face lit only by the dim glow of information panels as he sat in warm isolation, snug in the metal and fabric embrace of his cabin. Others were travelling on similar trajectories: this was a well-used if minor conduit between two minor habitations. Interaction was not desired by any traveller, each ensconced in their own, almost foetal, form of high-speed tranquility.
With a silent boom! a photon energy beam burst around him: the surrounding vegetation appeared as a clear, deathly grey-white ghost of itself. He knew: the Blindness was upon him. Then - puzzlement rather than dazzlement: he could still see. His retinas were not seared, the cockpit around him was not melting into an unbearable reaction chamber of light followed by unfathomable patterns on his visual cortex and new depths of darkness. Instead - he was comfortable, and confused.
He checked his rear-view optical sensors, and saw: dim lights. Their coruscating beams danced and glanced in the trees around him, but kept their most piercing lances shielded from his eyes.
Then he recognised the signature shape and form of those lights: they came from a BMW - and could only have been their adaptive LED headlamp system.
He smiled to himself. Our species is just so inventive, he realised, and just doesn’t know when to stop tinkering, even with the most traditional of technologies. Headlights today, interplanetary mood lighting tomorrow, each component and subsystem being developed by whirling and evolving teams of scientists, engineers, manufacturers and - yes - sales people and buyers. Cultural systems enmeshing imperfectly with imperfect electromechanical systems - causing clashes and jolts aplenty - leading to the evolution of the normal. He was glad to be part of it.
