The Perfect Hard-Sided Spinner Bag

1% Inspiration, 99% Perspiration

“Maybe I’m being generally stupid, but I prefer that to being artificially intelligent.”

This blog post is a follow-up on last January’s post about A.I. titled: ‘FFFFlaws-in-the-Algorithm’. Find it here.  ‘Chat GTP4’ quickly provided near-instantaneous detailed-yet-simplistic answers. I projected this reason why: All A.I. source data was online thus could never quite capture real as-lived experiences. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato reasoned how descriptions and representations of experiences and objects (and everything in between) could not be the same as the actual experiences and things themselves, and this is an important distinction for understanding A.I. and it’s limitations.

Motorcycle riders know and feel things about motorcycles, riding and rider’s gear which cannot easily be translated into words, sentences, stories, photos, numbers, or 1’s and 0’s.  So following the old “garbage in, garbage out” principle in computer programing, when it comes to motorcycling A.I.’s results must always be incomplete, somewhat predictable, and uh…a little boring. By extension this probably means no project-able future version of A.I. is likely to ever become the existential scifi-type threat to humanity futurists worry about. Because A.I.’s algorithms rely entirely on preexisting digitized data, no matter how unimaginably huge that resource is (or ever becomes), or how powerful any algorithm might be, the wonderful “Aaa-Haa!!” bolt-of-lightening-black-swan moment riding’s magic, or the of outside-the-box moment of inventive craziness can never be perfectly replicated or synthesized.

If an A.I. program could somehow be magically transformed into a living human being, most people encountering that person would fairly quickly label this individual a ‘tool’: “In modern slang, calling someone a ‘tool’ typically refers to them being seen as foolish, unintelligent, or lacking in self-awareness. It is often used as an insult to describe someone who is thought to be easily manipulated or controlled by others. While the slang usage of ‘tool’ has negative connotations, it’s important to note that it can also be used playfully or sarcastically among friends without intending any harm.” – from Neuralword.com (Side note: the above definition reads as if it were entirely A.I. generated. Hmmm…)

Any true out-of-the-box experience or solution takes a leap-of-faith. For example, in 1983 at the time of its introduction, a one-piece Roadcrafter armored coverall was an answer to a question very few riders in America were asking. Simplified, that question was: “What would rider’s gear be like if it were narrowly optimized to help riders living in advanced and rich countries use their motorcycles more often, and mainly as utility transportation?” At that time I knew only one person who’d been asking that, a motorcycle magazine editor named Steven L. Thompson, so I sent him the first one. A few days after he’d received it his close friend Bob Sinclair, who was then the strong-willed motorcycle-commuting president of ‘Saab of America’, appropriated it, so I had to send Steve another one (which I was happy to do.) Sinclair’s enthusiasm was a good sign.

Auto pioneer Henry Ford supposedly said (paraphrasing): “Prior to the introduction of the Model T automobile if you’d asked people how to improve their transportation, the response would have been 'we want a faster horse'. Even if he never said that, his Model T automobile was far more (and less) than simply a faster horse. Today, A.I. provides a lot of ‘we want a faster horse’ results, and as near as I can tell, exactly zero Model T car results.

Today, Henry Ford and Apple Computer’s Steve Jobs are both remembered as visionaries who were adamant their businesses should never ask their customers what they wanted. These two believed people-in-general have little knowledge what they want until they actually see and experience whatever any something might be. Yet both visionaries were able to invent, create, finance and produce things they knew would sell well. Their strong belief was at core entirely based on an intangible inner faith that if they personally wanted one of whatever they were imagining, others might want one too. I can personally relate to that.

Einstein famously described what all inventors do, and what no A.I. can simulate. He called what he did to develop our current understandings of light, energy, mass and gravity ‘thought experiments’. Such experiments involved asking questions in the simplest conceivable child-like ways and coming up with revolutionary analytic answers. Answers which initially depended on intangible faith. Only later were those answers experimentally tested and proven as truths.

The “AaaHaa!!” and “Eureka!” moments when new ideas and new solutions arrive always come with adrenaline and endorphins. You can absolutely feel them being important and right, as much as understand them.

The short essay which follows breaks down a simple “AaaHaa!!” product idea having nothing to do with Aerostich directly, but a lot to do with A.I. and how original inventions, new products and new recipes are created.

Lastly, the product outlined below is simply a mashup of already existing ideas and technologies combined in a novel new thing. Without using any type of A.I. algorithm I know on faith alone this new idea is good, because I experienced a little adrenaline/endorphin hit as its pieces came together in my imagination. No A.I. can feel or do this. Someday I’d enjoy having and using this doesn’t-exist-yet product…

A Perfect Hard-Sided Roller (or Spinner) Carry-On Bag

The perfect hard-sided ‘roller-board’ or ‘spinner’ carry-on bag does not (yet) exist. I’ve spent some time trying to find this bag from among the hundreds of variants available today. None offer the combination of features I’d like. Not one.

In addition to the baseline of being sturdy, lightweight and fit-able into an airliners overhead cabin bin, what I’d like needs to have a couple of unique characteristics. Essentially it would be a carry-on sized hard-sided bag configured more like an old-fashioned footlocker or steamer trunk than a shrunken hard sided suitcase. Visualize a rectangular-shaped acoustic guitar case with a thin-ish lid and a deep-ish bottom into which a guitar lays into. Add wheels and a retractable handle. No hard-sided spinner carry ons have ever been made this way. (Note: Spinner = four smallish 360º swiveling wheels on the bottom end. Roller = two larger diameter wheels set into cavities in the bottom end.)

Elements the same as current carry-on spinner and roller bags:

• Shaped like a current hard-sided carry-on bag.
• Size like a current hard-sided carry-on bag.
• Material like a current hard-sided carry-on bag with similarly radius-ed corners.
• Either four wheels like a current hard-sided ‘spinner’ or two wheels like a current soft-sided ‘roller’ bag.
• Telescoping handle like a current hard-sided carry-on bag (must be narrow enough to ‘piggyback’ another bag).
• Lining of the bag and lid is fabric with pockets along the sides.

Elements different than current carry-on spinner and roller bags:

• Lid is piano-hinged on the longer dimension, and the deeper side has two or three low-profile recessed latches.
• Lid is about 2” from the top ‘side’ of the bag.
• Lid seals against a waterproof gasket (with a small air-pressure equalizing vent separate or as a gap incorporated into seal).
• Gasket is a rubber extrusion along the top edge of the deeper ‘bottom half’ of the bag.
• Lid has a single small, compressed gas strut as a hold-open (like car trunks, hatchbacks).
• Lid opens 90º with strut, more than 230º with strut disconnected (via quick release).

Advantage(only one, but it is an important one):

• 50% smaller ‘footprint’ when laid down and opened inside a hotel room or bedroom. Which is where bags of this type are usually opened after being placed on a chair, table, bed or luggage rack. Without specific prompting I know of no A.I. algorithm capable of weighting this consideration strongly enough to produce this design solution.

When some inventor added wheels and a telescoping handle to a basic soft-sided carry-on bag, air travel became far easier. That humble innovation seemed in hindsight so obvious it was universally taken-for-granted but it also probably increased the number of potential air travelers by millions.

Today’s air travelers overwhelmingly favor the increased protection and easier maneuverability of hard-sided four-wheeled spinner-bag versions, but unfortunately all of these types split bilaterally down the middle like the shrunken version of an old-fashioned suitcase. This means when you open them up the bag’s ‘footprint’ is that of two bags, not one, so using them is more difficult within the confined space of a bedroom or standard hotel and motel room. Only the now out-of-favor ‘drag-behind’ soft-sided roller-bags are set up with an opening lid (always secured by a perimeter zipper).

It would take a very brave investor to finance the creation of a hard-sided spinner (or roller) carry-on bag set up with a side-hinged hard top lid faith alone:  1.) It would be different than the hundreds of hard-sided carry-on bags, and 2.) it might be slightly more complex to manufacture, and 3.) the ‘target market’ for such a bag does not know they would prefer using this type of bag, since it does not yet exist. There’s never a Henry Ford or Steve Jobs around when you want one, and no A.I. program can do the required on-faith creative stuff like this, either.

– Mr. Subjective, Sept 16, 2024

PS – We (Aerostich) are not planning to enter the ultra-competitive carry-on bag business. The description above was written to serve as an example of a limitation of A.I. programs. I’d still like to have one of these bags, though, and would be happy to serve as an unpaid design consultant for anyone wanting to develop this design.

PPS – This blog post was inspired by my wife, who was looking for and not finding a perfect roller bag. She writes a cool substack called ‘Peeled Grapes’.