In most places 5G (in currently envisioned form) will not happen at all due to economics of it. Outside of Japan and such we simply do not have population density to justify putting a cell unit at every lamp post (because signal is short range and does not go through walls very well).

So maybe New York and such, but that's probably it...

Couple years back I've revived a dead flash drive. I was following instructions I found on YouTube. The whole experience was disconcertingly painless - it was way too easy to reflash the drive with new, manufacturer supplied firmware.

So, may be the reason Symantec/Kaspersky didn't find the method used to jump the airgap is that the penetration code was in a flashdrive's firmware.
Scenario: Internet facing machine got breached by one of gazillion methods. Perpetrators sit there, collect login credentials. Then, one day, someone inserts a flashdrive. Firmware is replaced by attack code that makes the drive represent itself as a keyboard. Flash drive then inserted into an airgapped system...
Other scenarios: Given how much resources attacker has (attacks are waaay too, ahem, tailored), they might have done a postal intercept (NSA style) or even breached the flashdrive manufacturer.

There might be traces of reflashing left. Or it might be that the initial overwrite was destructive and that the poisoned flash drive was declared dead (after being plugged into a couple of other airgapped machines, just to be sure).
So it might be a good idea for Kaspersky to rummage through dead thumbdrives drawer.

Those planes were designed for low cross section at frequencies used by American AA systems. Remember, during last Winter Olympics, there were photos of Russians deploying their antiaircraft systems? And there was a weird, seemingly ancient rickety thing? That, my friends, is a modern long wavelength radar. That thing sees "stealth" planes just fine.

What If they'll start busting people for not paying taxes for all of their torrenting? You know, Al Capone style...

So the next time Kaspersky finds a properly signed rogue driver we would know that the hardware vendor was cooperating. Would it create a liability?

Basically, everybody and their dog, who heard about that woman's court case, will rush to enable recommended updates in order to screw up their system and go claim their $10000.

The difference is - you can't win invasion of privacy lawsuit when NSA does this because (apparently) you have no standing. But when the government does it in the open - it will have to defend its actions in court.

Or a "not slashdot type person" traveling with wife will have to report his Ashley Madison account...

Good one! link for Google impaired

What about dating sites? There's a LOT of info there. Take OKC for example - religion, actual sexual orientation, political leanings, etc. etc. etc.

What the fuck?!!!!

I think Google buys all those companies just to acquire talent. Google is famous for rather hardnosed/pragmatic approach to managing it's workforce. Such an approach successfully weeds out bullshit artists (e.g. Marissa Mayer). Unfortunately this approach also fairly harsh on true visionaries.
Apparently Google thinks that because bullshit artists outnumber visionaries as 1000 to 1, it's an acceptable loss.
And to compensate for this they simply wait for other companies to cultivate the talent and then swoop in.

At least it shuts down Elon's "billions of simulations" in our future argument. Unless Kolmogorov's complexity of a universe is minuscule. Which makes it deterministic - but our most definitely is not.

There might be a difference. For example - we can invent a logic bomb that will crash or corrupt simulated reality. Quantum cryptanalysis comes to mind.

I think there's a minimum amount of energy required to flip one bit (in our physics). The "outside world" will need insane amount of energy to maintain billions of simulations (assuming that in their physics bit flipping ain't free either)

Weak argument. This is (ahem) a cellular automata. Literally ten lines of code plus RNG.