segway and social harmony

(The Segway may not be the cause of these things, but it might be, and it seems like it’s worth writing about.)

Learning to use the Segway is not difficult, but it is rather unnatural. Instead of learning new skills, it requires that you forget old ones. You need to forget how to balance, something you’ve been doing subconciously ever since you learned to walk. And in doing so, it seems, you’re almost brought back before you did learn to walk.

Everyone who first rides a Segway starts smiling. There’s something irrestible about forgetting, about this new extension of your body sparing you all that work. So you just enjoy the moment and play. It makes the Segway fun, but also irresistable. [Aaron Swartz: The Weblog]

Cool! I’d love to try one. A Segway would be the ideal way to get around here with the new downtown redevelopment project building a pedestrian friendly “main street” on Wilton Drive.