"LED Headlamp"

There are many theories as to what brought about the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the downfall of a civilization and societal collapse makes for no end of apocalyptic fodder. To be sure, our poisoning of the earth, air and water, pressures of overpopulation, loss of resources, animal extinctions, and the destruction of the ecosystem on a planetary scale are all sobering, suicidal, and statistical red flags.

But for me, another harbinger of doom has to be headlights, as in we appear to be literally blinded by our progress - no different than the proverbially transfixed deer. There is no better symptom of contempt for our fellow humans than to knowingly operate a vehicle with the newfangled LEDs when they create a significant safety hazard. At the very least ones that are just swapped-out replacements for regular ones and not professionally installed have to banned for the safety of everyone else on the road. The data is there, and it is painfully - hence the unedited original concept sketch posted above - obvious to anyone using a motor vehicle these days what a legitimate threat they are. Even if calibrated the way they are supposed to be, it presumes a level, flat driving surface (of which is simply, laughably nonexistent in the frost-heaved Interior), not to mention when half the automobiles are trucks whose headlights are directly at eye-level of most cars. Having to re-angle rear-view and side mirrors to avoid is a major hazard as well (pro-tip: when my car casts a damn shadow on the road up ahead - your lights might just be too damn bright). We're not talking about the comparatively annoying "using fog lights when there isn't any" or folks with several tiers of headlights on their rigs so as to see their way to the supermarket. This is more often than not as much of a potential accident every bit as serious as other impairments, like cell-phones or DUI's. But even if the social contract is broken, I do now feel a sense of companionship, a kinship of car when encountering another denizen of the road emitting an old-school beam that brightens my day. Er, night. Well, I mean, half the year up here it doesn't matter. But I'll be the guy flashing my stupid, weak little highbeams, even if most of the time you get a small supernova when the on-comer really hits their actual, real highs.