I can't say I learned much social skills in public school. I did learn how to take down bullies twice my size, but I've never used that in my adult life. What social skills I do have, I learned after I was out of the public school system.

Also, hygiene was worse in the old days, at least before running water & indoor plumbing.

Yeah, when the cavemen ate fast food, they actually had to run to catch it.

You think that's bad? Ever since our last project went bad, and I said we were screwed, I got all sorts of condom ads!

I think the most likely possibility is indifferent alien life. We won't have anything they want, so they'll take one look at us, say "meh", and go somewhere more interesting.

It depends on who finds whom. At our present stage, we couldn't find life out there if they were jumping up and screaming "Here we are!". Anyone who finds us has to be more advanced than we are.

I doubt that it would even destroy the Abrahamic religions. Most Christians would say the "in His own image" stuff meant spiritual, not appearance (assuming they look different from us).

It was far easier to convert the heathens when they were armed with spears than it will be when they come in FTL spaceships. :)

I don't even have to hit "winkey+L" anymore. I'm supposed to login with my Lincpass card, and when I leave my desk, I take the card out of the slot, and it locks the screen.

How sensitive is this? Will it come on if I'm watching TV and a MS ad comes on where they say "Hey Cortana"?

Which is clearly better than Microsoft's One NSA/FBI/keylogged Drive.

For the most part, reading on my iPhone is adequate. I don't read on it at home, where I have an iPad and a Kindle, but it's fine away from home. I don't think I've tried reading technical books on it though.

Wear and tear. I have my phone with me all the time, and it probably falls out of my pocket several times a week. My iPad has never left the house, and I haven't dropped it once in the months I've had it, and never dropped the older iPad in the years I owned that.

I disagree. I can post on my favorite forum from my iPad, but it's much easier from my laptop. I could probably update a spreadsheet for my home budget on the iPad, but never have because it's easier on the PC. And, though the iPad is much easier to carry than a laptop, the phone is much more portable, and adequate for most of the stuff I'd use an iPad for.

The iPad IS better for quick web searches, reading (but not composing) emails, and some games, but if I had to get rid of one of my devices, the iPad would go before either the laptop or the iPhone.

My iphone fits well in my pocket. My iPad doesn't. There's no way I'm lugging a tablet around everywhere, with or without phone capability.