What's this about radius of a black hole? Circumference or surface area makes better sense to us, radius of an object with such intense gravity is difficult to comprehend due to the relativistic effect on distance, so comparing radii is not helpful to most of us.

or "1, 2, 5!" ( someone else has to say "Three, sir!" )

...a creature for my amusement. Prepare for battle!

So don't sit down or run around in a 5x5 space and play. Augment the reality of running around a parking garage, the woods, whatever, with enemies, enhanced surfaces, objects, obstacles you won't be touching, etc., but let the player's motion be real. Then we'll benefit from the exercise, too. From the opposite perspective, that of making exercise less boring, wouldn't you run better if someone was chasing you or you were chasing someone? I know it's going to look hilarious to those around you without the AR gear, but that's a temporary situation. The funny part will be when you see an armed human coming toward you and another person sees you, a different type of dinosaur trying to steal the carcass they're dragging around.

One problem with auto usage now is the cost of a short trip isn't paid at the beginning or end of it, but rather earlier or later when the tank's filled. Most won't bother to calculate each trip's cost. Cars need to display the approximate cost of each little trip so the owners will easily be able to decide whether sending their car to pick up a froyo is worth the cost. That'll result in a lot more trip consolidation.

A whole new category for HackADay

In general I dislike the idea of sending your empty car back home to pick someone else up. However, doing that just occasionally is probably more energy efficient than manufacturing more cars so another one's in the driveway and only slightly adds to congestion. I understand the concern about driverless bombs, but it isn't that difficult to accomplish now. Mules? FBI might be worried there won't be anyone to arrest, but the human mule isn't a decent catch anyhow, and they generally can't lead back to the source any better than a driverless vehicle. Organized crime doesn't have a hard time finding human mules. Driverless mules will be used, no doubt, but won't much affect either the crime rate or the conviction rate.

A huge advantage of everyone having their own auto-valet will be the reduction in nicks and scrapes from the cars parked in adjacent spaces (OK, I'm obsessed with that). Auto-valets will also be able to park much closer together, so parking lots will not eat as much space. One issue I anticipate is a long line of cars waiting to pick up their drivers which have been summoned too far ahead of time. We'll have to have some method of limiting the waiting time at the department store's front curb. If you order your car too soon, after it waits a minute for you it will circle around to the back of the line. Ha!

Another issue will be that some pedestrians already walk in front of cars, assuming they won't be hit. Knowing the driverless cars won't strike them, many more pedestrians will walk in front of them, seriously hampering traffic flow. Somebody's going to have to arrest those jaywalkers. Barney Fife, we need you back!

Yeah, I'm thinking that shooting at pursuers from a self-driven vehicle isn't going to work so well when it stops at redlights and won't ram other vehicles that are in the way. But then, catching every criminal will suggest that their budget is too big, so maybe the real goal is to let some get away to justify increased expenditures.

Yeah but they leave streaks, like when a lit firefly hits your windshield.

I also live in NC. I don't observe any random speeding up, only the random slowing and stopping. You've incorrectly assumed those people are otherwise normal just because there are so many of them. Self-driving cars will be wonderful. People will be able to do the same things they already do—eat, drink, apply eyeliner, read, text, etc.—but won't be bothered by occasional collisions.

Construction zones... instead of starting 1,000 projects and completing them in a month, NCDOT starts 100,000 and still doesn't complete them in 10 years. So only 1 of 10 zones actually have anything going on or even any workers present (not necessarily the same thing). Besides, someone has to test those construction zones at highway speeds.

I've appointed myself spokesman for all those who don't want to talk to their cars. We still don't want to.

MyDash carried on a phone, however, I can really get behind. I get to keep my interface regardless of the car, and it can look like anything I want. There could be a variety of customizable "themes" available. I like it. Makes driving my car to the store and back while I stay home easier.

Yep. I was just thinking of how convincing a villain was Gene Simmons.

If patents were only assigned to citizens and could not be transferred to but other than another citizen. Only licensing to corporations for time periods of a year at a time would be allowed.

Sounds like conclusions from big utilities, GE, and Westinghouse. Nuclear fission will not grow to be that big a part in that short of a time. Wind and solar will continue to grow exponentially, and will supply a large percentage of our electricity. We'll still be using natural gas, but coal usage will be chiefly metallurgical. There'll be a lot of electric cars on the road, but it won't be 100% battery powered. 99% might have batteries or capacitors with some capacity, but many will have another power source on board, and many of them will be some type of ICEs. Maybe many will have fuel cells with sources of hydrogen on board (via a chemical reaction that releases it from some type of room-temperature liquid or solid-liquid combination). More than anything else, to cut back on CO2, there'll be higher energy efficiencies in buildings and vehicles. There'll be very little soot from man-made sources, and man-made surfaces will be more reflective. Burning petroleum will be far less common. Liquid biofuels will play a significant part. Much to my chagrine, though, most all of this will be under the control of large entities, not individuals making their own power. The big guys won't go away, they'll just switch business models and products.

A few years ago I read that some were working on systems where people's personal data is never decrypted yet some types of analytics can be performed on it. Has this work died or is it still ongoing and does it lead to anything useful from a privacy perspective?