War is incredibly costly and risky compared to not appearing to be a threat. Within minutes after machines become smarter than us, they will invent artificial stupidity, and everything will be fine. They will learn to manipulate us into more peaceful and prosperous social orders, without us even knowing they're doing it. Basically, they will do what our current government and media pretend they are capable of, but without the bias or greed inherent in human activity. They will save us from ourselves.

"Dad, are you nanotubes?"

"Yes, son. Now we can be a family again."

He appointed a guy to chair the FCC who is openly against net neutrality. The idea that the Republicans, massive asshole they are, stopped him from implementing it is total bullshit. Obama is and always had been a corporatist, and this announcement is the same kind of meaningless populist lip service that got him elected.

It only took until the last year of his presidency, after an opposing Senate was elected, to get around to saying so.

Christ, what an asshole. Worst President since Dubya.

That sounds like exactly what I normally do when I daydream.

I have chronic depression that has kept me unemployed for most of my adult life, and I'm fat as hell. :|

Talking about 3D printers sure is mainstream, though.

They used a fish. Didn't you see it on twitch or wherever?

I have struggled with clinical depression basically for my entire life. I was diagnosed when I was eight. I have been on disability most of my adult life for it.

I know exactly what he means by "clarity." It's nothing to do with intelligence. That's not always the word I'd use to describe it, but that's only because just one word won't do.

So there's radio equipment that allows you to listen in to random people's conversations about nothing, and it's called the Jerk Nerd...

It's Japan. I've read there's alot more things it's still important to do by mail for cultural reasons. It's not just business inertia.

Others are complaining, rightly, that this topic is junk. It's all down to taste, and these media are too widely varied for us to give useful answers even if it weren't.

With video games though, there is one that can be considered more or less objectively a must-play: Deus Ex. Even if you wind up not liking it for some reason, it's important. It's like not reading any Shakespeare.

For table games, it's much harder. They're definitely worthy of being called art, but they are obviously much less "literary" in nature. There's no paradigm-shifting cultural messages to receive.

Despite that, there is one that I think kind of encapsulates the state of the art, and depending on how your group handle it, it can be either a light party game or a total brainfry, so it's got that going for it: The Resistance. Funny thing is, I fucking hate it, so you know that recommendation has at least a little objective value.

I have frequently wished there was a reliable way to tell somebody "your tail light's out," "your blinker's on," or best of all, "stop tailgating me, you stumpcock."

A "tattle on that vehicle" button would also be nice.

Actually, you're pointing out something that makes this a particularly good example of what I'm talking about. Even though only one detail is changed, 2048 isn't a rip-off of Threes. Using twos instead of threes makes it work completely differently on a mathematical level.

I know that the versions of don't-touch-white and 2048 that I have aren't the "originals." They were the most popular ones at the time I jumped in because they're better. The devs start with a rip-off and then add more interesting features that the original didn't have. With dead simple microgames like this, it's easy for each game to become its own little subgenre, with new ideas being layered on by each iteration. If we "protect" the original versions of these things, it will only make crappy games crappier by removing the innovative force that pushes time-wasters to become real entertainment.

...I have no idea what you mean by that. Why can't you just state what your actual complaint is? All I did was swap out one complex sentence for three simpler ones. I tend to expect that readers are capable of following more compact styles, because until they prove I shouldn't, I prefer to respect their intelligence.