Are You Too Old for This

From a Google Image Search - Scientific American - Data Center

I’m Miriam. My daughter is Nora. She’s eight. It’s summer and she keeps saying, “Mom, I’m bored” and moping around the house. She has her screens but in summer, when school is out, social media is also boring, apparently. I think we should take a trip.

It’s difficult to travel though. Most of us don’t own cars anymore. When we want a car, we order a car (for a hefty fee) and it is delivered to our door, since we own a house, passed along from my parents when they downsized.

Nora’s dad left us to “find himself” when Nora was five. We still stay in touch with Matt’s father.

Our house is in a suburb of Albany. Nora’s grandfather lives in Clay, NY. She’s excited. We never see Jay in person, only on Facetime or the new AI-in-person app. It’s a relief to be free of hearing about her boredom, with attitude, and on autoplay. Nora starts packing. I’ll check her choices later.

I’m Googling our route, so Gemini AI breaks it down for me. Back roads only please, I tell Gemini.

Take NY 7W/Troy-Schenectady Road

Cross the river and pick up NY 5W

at Little Falls take NY 169N

Cross the river and pick up NY 5 West on the north side of the river.

Stay on NY 5 past Utica and Verona

Take NY 31W to Chittenango

NY 290W to Manlius/Dewitt, cross I481 to Kinne Road heading north to Northern Boulevard and then take N NY 298W/Collamer Road to US 11

Take US11N to Route 31 W into Clay, NY

This route sounds longer, but it’s the scenic route. I have memories of how green the fields are and the forested mountains in both green and brown, the river blue and shimmering. I haven’t taken this route in ages.

We set out from Colonie, a suburb of Albany, NY at 8 am for what is supposed to be a 3- or 3-and-a-half-hour trip. Nora is glued to the window.

“What’s that place,” she says pointing to an enormous low white building.

“That’s a data center,” I tell her.

“It’s so big. What does a data center do? I tell her it stores computer data.

“Oh,” she says.

We pass a fenced expanse enclosing a parking lot and guard towers.

“Is that a jail?”, Nora asks.

“That’s a detention center for immigrants. In the mid-2020s immigrants were placed in these centers waiting to be deported. Some poor souls are still there.”

Where are the farms, I thought. This all used to be farmland with small towns popping up here and there.

Just then we passed an enormous factory farm with row after row of chickens, visible inside. Next, we passed a huge greenhouse, but the windows were translucent so we couldn’t see what was growing inside.

We passed a giant Amazon Warehouse floating like a great white ship on concrete seas.

“Where’s the grass Mom?”

“How do you know about grass?”

“Your father has a National Geographic book full of pictures of meadows, woods, mountains, and deserts,” Nora told Miriam.

“Forget you saw that,” Miriam said. “Don’t say anything to Grandpa Jay.”

“Would Grandpa Pete be put in the detention center?”, Nora asked worriedly.

“No.” Miriam said, “but the book would probably be taken away.”

“Do you see any green grass or forests around here? Was that river we crossed blue?”

“No,” said Nora, “everything is white and brown, except for the beautiful blue skies with the white clouds.”

“It’s so hot today that we don’t dare open the windows in this car,’ Miriam said.

Just before we got into Clay, NY the white fabs of Micron appeared on the right side of the road.

“What’s that for? Is that another data center?”

“Nope.” Miriam said. “That’s a chip factory. They make computer chips and phone chips there.”

In Clay, almost at Matt’s dad’s apartment were the ruins of a shopping center.

“What’s that,” Nora asked, pointing.

“People used to go to stores in person to shop. When places like Amazon delivered to people’s homes and the extreme weather made going outside dangerous, these shopping centers with stores, restaurants and movie theaters failed.”

“Oh,” said Nora, not knowing what else to say. She had seen shopping malls in old movies.

Then they were at Grandpa Jay’s. The trip had taken less time because there was almost no traffic on the road.

(This has been a blast from a possible future. It would be much nicer if the future could be green, and brown, and blue and not too hot to venture out-of-doors.)

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