Most 'techies' are wage slaves, and do what their employers pay them to do -- and if that's the 457th version of Candy Crush, then that's what they work on. The exception, I suppose, is the self-employed, and the Kickstarter types, but they are a tiny minority. Also last time I checked many things that are innovative and/or revolutionary or that will 'change the world' either get sued out of existence, or gobbled up by some mega-corp, and then either twisted into something else, or buried. We live in a nascent dystopia, after all. Ther'e's still some hope, but it's dwindling.

Since you don't seem to read and/or comprehend everything posted, I'll reiterate: I'm describing a possible dystopian future where Facebook is required. Sadly, I also think it's not too far-fetched, just like I don't think it's too far-fetched that in another possible dystopian future, everyone on the gods-be-damned Internet will be required to log in somehow using their real name, no more anonymity allowed -- at which points, I go back to using Public Libraries with printed books for everything, and paying my bills with checks instead of electronically -- or with cash, in person.

Screw you, jackass.

Friend, you're FAR from being alone in that. Happens to me all the time. Finally, I gave up any semblance of civility and just cut loose, because it's not like the real trolls are holding anything back. Any attempts to defend myself in 'dignified' ways just gets twisted into something else anyway. Largely, the Internet has become just a sewer for the lowest common denominators of humanity. The vast majority of civil, intelligent, insightful conversations I have, are still face-to-face.

It's more likely that we'll wake up one day to a world where you have to have a Facebook account, with your real name and all your real, personal information, or you won't be allowed to use the Internet anymore. The Internet is already largely one big data-collection and surveillance network, and even not using your real name anywhere is trivial for someone with the right level of access to information to circumvent and discover who and where you are. The next step if this 'consolidation' continues will be to make sure there is no anonymity allowed for anyone; you'll have to log in to everything using a Facebook account, or something similar, so all your activity can be thoroughly tracked and logged by the 'proper agencies' -- for your own protection, of course.

Or so they'd like it to be. I'd sooner not even have the Internet anymore, and go back to using libraries for information, receiving paper bills for money I owe, and mailing paper checks to pay them. We all survived and thrived just fine before the Internet, and we'd all survive and thrive just fine without it. It'd be a pain at first but we'd get used to it. The more people that realize all that, the better. If people start leaving the Internet in droves then either it'd have to change or die.

Global warming, famine, disease, asteroid impacts? These are not the things that will destroy humanity. RELIGION will destroy humanity.

THAT is what will destroy us: Endless cycles of war over something that exists only in people's minds, never in reality. Man makes the Gods in his own image -- and at our core, we're just animals, who happen to have access to weapons of mass destruction.

I'm not sure you understand. I want a hardware switch that write-protects the entire phone from anyone installing or writing anything to any of it's memory devices for any reason, working RAM excepted, of course (the OS and existing software need stack and heap space, of course). Of course, as you say, and as I've already pointed out, the whole game is rigged before you even get the phone; the manufacturer can put whatever on it and you'd never know, and the wireless company will put whatever on it, and you have no say in the matter. Really, it's enough to make me strongly consider abandoning cellphones completely and just go back to a plain, dumb, landline phone and an answering machine. Currently I have the cheapest flip-phone I could get, and even that could easily be compromised, wirelessly even, even though I've completely disabled any ability it has to connect it's minimal web browser to the Internet, AT&T I'm sure could push whatever code they want to the thing. At least I can turn it completely off, and remove the battery from it.

Why isn't there user-controlled write-protect on phones to prevent this sort of thing? You don't need to be able to install software on your goddamned phone so often that it needs to be in read/write mode all the time.

Of course my question is rhetorical and the answer is obvious: smartphones are just surveillance and data collection devices. Read my new sigline, it says it all.

Let's see their 'deep learning tool' identify something that's got a featureless black box over it, or someone's face that's got a black box or oval over it.

We will not have cars running around with nobody inside it at the controls in five years.
We also won't have cars without controls for a human driver because that's INSANE.
We won't have this because only an insane person would trust it. We'll have to have DECADES of humans behind the wheel overseeing anything 'autonomous' before any lawmaker will even CONSIDER allowing them to drive around unattended, and that is the way it should be. Do you have PhD's in computer science, specializing in (so-called) artificial intelligence? No? That's why you don't understand ANY of this. I at least read and listen to more than just media hype and Google press releases, and I KNOW that there is no such thing as true 'AI', there is only clever pieces of software that mimick some aspects of human cognition, but that are not self-aware or conscious, because science does not even begin to understand yet how human brains accomplish that. Until such time as we have the equivalent of Commander Data walking around, you'll have to keep your drivers license current and oversee your so-called 'self driving car' for when (not IF, but WHEN) it comes across things it can't handle, so get used to it -- assuming you can afford the expensive luxury cars that'll come as an option in. Meanwhile the rest of us will be 'self driving' ourselves and not give a fuck.

Goddamnit.. It is not 'here, now'. What we have 'now' is research vehicles that have to have two engineers/scientists/whatever riding in the thing, hovering over the standard automobile controls in case it fucks up. What we have 'now' is something that can't handle driving on the freeway. What we have 'now' is not available for sale to the public. What we have 'now' is not in any way shape or form ready to be called a 'product', it is just 'research and development'. It is NOT going to be ready in 'FIVE YEARS'. At best in 'FIVE YEARS' we'll have some fancy cruise control that will still mean you have to have a drivers license and can pass all the required tests. You and people like you just bought into the hype and have no idea what you're talking about!

They don't want to appear to be non-progressive technologically-speaking, so they spend a little money 'researching' it, even if it seems like it's going to be non-viable anytime in the next 20 years or so. Of course at best this will be a sophisticated 'cruise control' and never anything you could actually trust to not kill people by accident if you let it loose all by itself, but even a sophisticated cruise-control would make for a nicely profitable option on expensive luxury vehicles, so I'm sure they'll be more than happy to have that to sell. But despite the two-digit IQ crowd insisting that they'll have robotic overlords to drive them around while they snooze, it's not going to happen anytime within decades. Meanwhile I just laugh at the foolishness of some people, and their inability to distinguish stuff they see in movies from reality.

Show us your PhDs in computer science and neurology and maybe anyone will listen to you. Otherwise you're just another reckless jackass on the Internet who has drunk the media-brewed AI/autonomous car kool-aid. Meanwhile I and people like me who have been workin in high-tech our entire professional careers talk to people who actually know what's going on, and know how little they actually know, and how much all this is being rushed along and hyped to death when there's actually little reality to any of it. Be my guest, though, and blindfold yourself and strap yourself in to a so-called 'self driving car'; we'll just call it 'evolution in action'.

Oh, and by the way: when a troll calls someone else a troll, they're not taken seriously, so don't even bother. Go back to 4chan, kid.

This isn't chess.
This isn't an elevator, that goes up and down in a very limited space.
This isn't a train on a track.
This isn't an airplane (which, by the way, are still required to have qualified pilots).
This isn't Hondas' Asimo or any other robot that just walks or rolls around.
This is something that can go at highways speeds, in ANY direction, out in public, where there are people walking around, riding bicycles, or motorcycles, or skateboards, or driving other vehicles in it's vicinity.
You cannot equate this to anything else, and like too many other people who are not technically qualified to be making judgements or decisions on the subject, you just plain don't understand that this is not in any way, shape, or form, ready to be let loose in the world, and will not be allowed to do so for DECADES, and only a fool would step into a box on wheels with nothing but a seat and no controls and allow it to do as it pleases. YOU and other fools can do so if you like -- and the rest of us will call it 'evolution in action'. Also enjoy your media-brewed 'AI' / 'autonomous self driving car' kool-aid, because this is all hype and little reality.