As they perfect this technology they won't have to bother with finding someone to carry out their policies and read their nonsense. The ministers of propaganda will be able to tweak the AI anchor's expression and mannerisms to match the desired message. Want to intimidate the viewer? Lower the eyebrows and lean the anchor forward in its chair. Want the viewer to feel happy that the loss of an inherent right is a good thing for the party. Paint a big smile on the anchor and lift the pitch of the voice. All you need is a console with a bunch of settings to tweak.

Like banks that are "too big to fail," companies like Waymo are now "too big to regulate." They just lobby their way out of any legislation that gets in the way of their business model. And should they screw up and are sued, they have such deep pockets that it has a minuscule effect on their bottom line. So a couple of people get run over or are killed when a self-driving car gets T-boned in an intersection. What's the price of a life these days? $2M? $5M? Waymo can pay for that out of their coffee fund.

I agree they are overpriced, but $100? Not quite. My hearing aid has two microphones and the audio processing circuitry to shape the incoming sounds to compensate for my hearing deficiencies (I have lost most of my hearing in my left ear above 2KHz due to an acoustic neuroma), without blowing my eardrum out if there is a sudden loud noise. So they're a bit more sophisticated than a wireless earbud. But, yeah, I paid about $3K for mine five years ago and if it weren't for the combined government and workplace benefits, which covered half, I may have gone without one.

On a side note, I just had my annual appointment with my audiologist and I mentioned how my workplace had just switched from cubicles to open concept, and she rolled her eyes. Apparently there is a consensus among audiologist that this is an incredibly dumb idea. I agree. I find it very hard to concentrate due to the slightest audio (and visual) distractions.

I always carry a couple hundred in cash just in case, and it has come in handy. Over the summer I was waiting in line at the grocery store when their POS system decided to take a nap and stopped processing credit or debit transactions - cash only, said the cashier. This was a major Canadian grocery chain, not a mom and pop corner store. As far as I could see across several checkout lines, I was the only one with cash - everyone else had to queue up at the single ATM to withdraw money to pay for their purchases.

I get the privacy issues some people are raising here. But until the day when electronic payment systems are bullet-proof (probably long after I've shuffled off this mortal coil), I will continue to carry a wad of bills in my pocket.

Just tested it out on my iPhone with an episode of Black Mirror. I clicked the download symbol and it took about a minute to download over a 100 Meg cable network. Watching it now, resolution is good. This will be great for those long commutes to the office!

I'm uploading a porn video soundtrack to my car.

You give the ownership class too much credit. They're just as foolish as we are, and like the Wile E. Coyote will realize they're in free-fall only after they have raced off the edge of the cliff.

Correct. However, management loves hearing the accountant (who did the simple calculation of savings per employee * number of employees) who says "hey, we can save $xK/month". But no one listens to that same accountant when he says "hey, we might be losing some money because we have everyone packed in like pigs heading for slaughter."

I can't comment on Seattle or San Francisco, but here I Toronto it seems like every second older building in the downtown core is being razed and replaced with a high rise condo. Yet prices and rents continue to soar at double digits year over year. Some of it is driven by immigration and speculators but even the suburban communities around the city are experiencing unprecedented price increases on properties. Demand is simply outstripping supply.

I tried connecting my 32GB Apple iPod to it in my 2012 Ford Fusion. It attempted to index every song and crashed in the process, and became stuck on disc 2 of Pink Floyd's The Wall. It would not play anything else until I did a hard reset of the system. The only way I connect to it now is through the Aux jack in the centre console.

All you have to do is die. End of simulation.

The problem will correct itself. When enough people are out of work and unable to afford cars, then the carmakers will lose money and some will go bankrupt. And the economy will end up in the shitter, the unemployed will riot, the government will call out the national guard/armed forces to shoot a few hundred thousand people, and there will be fewer people looking for a work. Problem solved.

I don`t see a company spending money on an expensive robot receptionist that will wear out and break down, when they can simply install a large LED display, connected to a web cam, that shows an animated image instead.

Seconded. I have a benign tumour in the left side of my head (acoustic neuroma) that was detected many years ago. It has not changed in size in over a decade (verified by regular MRI's) and so far has not caused me any grief. If it did start growing, one method to stop it would be to zap it with gamma radiation; however, that carries the risk that the tumour then turns malignant. So if I'm ever forced to go through one of those "death ray boxes" I'll tell the TSA agent my cancer-risk story and see where that leads.