Break it down, though. What is the cost of energy if robots are doing all the work for you?

What are the costs of energy now?

-You pay the construction company for building the plant. (Robots don't need money. They'll build the plant)

-You pay a mining company to mine the raw materials ( Robots will mine them for free. At first you'll still have to pay for the actual materials, but once the materials owners realize there's nowhere to spend their money except on raw materials, they'll give up on the idea)

-You pay your workers to run the power plant. (Robots will run it for free)

The remaining costs of a power plant are incidental and usually related to worker satisfaction - - insurance benefits, paying when a worker gets injured, paying for the company picnic. Well, robots don't need insurance, if it gets broken it either gets fixed by other robots, or junked, and robots don't care about picnics.

In short, the cost of energy WILL be near zero if we ever reach the point where robots are doing all the work.

I suspect that if that ever happens (and remember, we have to manage not to blow ourselves up or in some other way destroy civilization before we get there) money as we know it will be a footnote in history, and creativity or, dare I say it, reputation (whuffie? Perish the thought) will be the currency.

If all you want is a sex slave, that's what the robot is for ;) By the time we have machines of the complexity we're discussing here, we'll have humanoid androids. To quip Ol' Yellow Eyes, they'll doubtless be fully functional and programmed in multiple techniques.

Because when we get to the point that the machines can do everything (including design and repair themselves) the free market will cease to exist. Once anyone can have anything he wants just by ordering a machine to make it happen, money will cease to have meaning.

iFans is derogatory now? Since when? My Apple-oriented friends call themselves that all the time.

And I've actually messed with Siri. I was underimpressed. I see the potential, but I certainly didn't see any reason for the rabid "Siri rocks/Android sucks!" crap that I'm seeing. Calling it polished while in the same breath calling Android (which has a voice command input system that does everything Siri does minus talking back to you (yet)) unpolished beta crap is just silly.

I don't think you read the whole thread. My point is that iFans have been slamming Android since it debuted for being unpolished, clunky, etc. The fact that it's in beta, as Google and others have told them, doesn't matter when they're busy denigrating non-Apple products.

And then when Apple released an unpolished, clunky product, they say it's OK that it's not finished because - yep, you guessed it. "It's in beta."

In other words, both Apple and Android are "in beta" (actually, Iris in in alpha) and therefore sitting there defending Apple for being in beta while slamming Android for being in beta is pretty stupid.

I hope you're right.

The same is going to be true on Windows PCs. If history is an indication, Apple will get there first, and Windows will toddle along behind at some point, and then outstrip Apple.

Considering Apple is pushing Siri but explaining away all it's faults by claiming "uh, well, it's uh. . Still in beta," I'd say your entire post is moot.

Siri is a gimick. It doesn't make the phone any more useful. Neither does Iris. Having a dick-measuring contest between the two is stupid, especially since they BOTH suck right now, and BOTH will presumably get better.

I'd say streaming 6 hours worth of data, in addition to web browsing, etc, is fairly heavy use.

I told you. The extended battery made for the Bionic. It's $25 including the new back cover.

I know someone will mod me troll for this, but the solution to that seems obvious. ;)

It's a good idea, but she likes those stupid little games from Big Fish etc, and they only run on Windows. There will be no prying her away from those games.

Wouldn't know. It never comes up. I never move files on my Android phone either (except for copying mp3s over from my home collection). On my old Droid I grabbed a file manager from the marketplace, and then deleted it a year later having never used it. I see it's integrated into the OS on my Bionic, but again, I never use it.

"you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone.'"

My mom plays with my android phone when I go visit. She's about the farthest thing from a computer scientist I know. I still occasionally have to remind her how to move a file between directories (on Windows). She finds the android OS to be very intuitive, and would get one herself if she had any need for a smart phone.

Criticizing Android's faults is one thing, but descending into ridiculous hyperbole that no one in his right mind is going to believe is pretty stupid.

I use my Bionic pretty heavily. It's either got streaming radio or streaming scanner traffic (which is really the same thing) going at least 6 hours a day. I also surf, read news sites, play games, etc. It lasts from 8am when I unplug it until I plug it back in, usually at around 30% battery, sometime between 11pm and midnight. The stock battery would require a boost (I usually plugged it into my mouse's USB recharger while at my desk), but the extended battery (all of 25 bucks) pretty much means I'm good to go all day, and about 90% of that is on 4G.

I don't understand people bitching about having to plug the phone in at night. Really? This is a hardship? We have a device that fits in our hand that's more advanced than the portable computers depicted on Star Trek, and we're whining about batteries that only last 15 hours?

Yes.

And their defense is that the data is anonymous. It's not a privacy violation if no one knows that it's *you* who was looking up the medical stuff.

And of course you can easily opt out.

As to the back door to allow the government to analyze the data without warrants. . Erm. . You know that's already been going on for years, secretly, right?

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/06/att-whistleblow/

Verizon is your doctor? HIPPA laws only apply to healthcare providers. Verizon can collect your data as long as they tell you they're doing it and give you the option to tell them to quit.