Which in turn is an exaggerated version of a....mirror. Major reduction of expense I'd say...

Read the following two books or more details:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-...
http://www.amazon.com/Phantoms...

Both are true. I can ogle nature all day long and will not get bored. I can look at a leaf for hours.

However, if you can bring me just on the other side of the moon, no further, so I can see the starts without light pollution and atmosphere I think the first time I'll just freeze from awe....now that I live in the Netherlands where clouds and sky are the same thing and even if they weren't this country has one of the worst cases of light pollution I truly miss the night sky. Really, I am not exaggerating.

What about an "outside" view of a Galaxy [that we can see only in movies] or a glimpse towards the Galactic core. How about planets and moons. Rings, great spots, Io's volcanoes and so on and so on...? I'll cry my eyes out...

We don't want any "pillars", thank you. Which pillars exactly are you lamenting for?

The pillar of religion? Don't make me laugh....
The pillar of "free and independent" press. keep on laughing
The pillar of democracy with proper check and balances. staring to hyperventilate with so much laughter
The pillar of outdated believes, general ignorance that still battles with century old ideas [evolution]. collapsing on the floor laughing.
The pillar of peaceful coexistence, tit for tat, non-violent competition . Oh wait, THIS is not a pillar of our society...'nuf said.

When people lament the loss of "norms and values" what they lament is that they are not allowed to kill the ones that disagree with them. Bigots that want to reverse the clock and bring back all the magnificent social ideas of the past /sarcasm

I've always wanted to see real competition between social systems. The original idea of the US had the potential to do just this, but alas, it did not happen. The central government should have insured only free travel and commerce between the states, defense and perhaps a few critical infrastructures and that's it. Then let the people move to the state which has the system closest to their attitude.

In fact I'd extend this idea to the whole globe. Let's not have countries but regions that are run by different social systems. Let's see then where the interesting people will go, the creative people, the productive people. Let the bigots cluster and live the way the want it.

The problem is of course that people always fight with each other. It is not enough to live and let live. I know almost no person that fully subscribes under this principle. No, we have to remove, stamp on or kill the ones that do not agree with our way of life...so sad.

I am betting that as soon as this tech kicks in the following will happen:

You will not be allowed to film [or use the recording, say in court] authorities of any kind [border control, police ect.]

You won't be allowed to use it in concert halls [buy buy conductor app], cinemas, theaters, pubs [be sure that many owners will forbid it to keep their clientele], churches, schools [creepy pedo], kindergartens [the same], at work [because you corporate secrets]

Therefore it's primary usefulness will be...wait for it....to collect even more personal data from the slaves while not endangering the masters in any way. Voluntarily! While arguing and fighting among ourselves about it. Brilliant!

I think Brin is having the laugh of his life. He must have heard that in communist states it was common to subscribe for a consumer product and wait for years to get it. But make the right ad campaign and western people will gladly surrender their dignity and line up to wait to give you money!!!. I am speechless...and some idiot above tried to say that there is some financial envy in those bashing the tech? Envy? I am pitying those fools...

Is that so? I wonder what happens with a person if he/she grew with normal diet and was put on vegan? I am not sure this is entirely healthy...

The Dutch are the tallest nation on earth because they eat very protein rich stuff [diary products]. That was on the news not so long ago...and you know what - funny but taller people are more successful in life. It's probably due to cognitive bias, the same one that makes people forgive the trespasses of beautiful people more readily that those of ugly people. So there is something in us that values height and perhaps it is connected via something like [illustration only example] "tall person - has access to protein rich food - good mate".
Also funny that all vegetarians I know [not even vegans] are on average not very tall or wide and honestly will have a difficulty to compete with meat eaters if we were in the "kill or be killed" situation.

So, as the food supplies begin to dwindle [they will eventually as will everything in a finite system with infinite growing demand] we will see more and more propaganda to switch to "eco food" like insects, microorganisms ans so on. It totally amazes me when people nonchalantly say "well, if we want to feed the ever growing population we will have to switch the menu" and no no one says "why are we so stupid to continue our infinite growth".

So 3 billion meat eaters on earth or 6 billion vegetarians or 10 billion vegans or 20 billion fungi eaters [numbers purely for illustration] - why one is "better" than the other? The impact on the eco system would be the same. Actually more because those 20 billion might still want heating, clothing and mobile phones...
I think however, that one IS better than the rest - namely the largest number possible that gives everyone the richest and healthiest diet possible in a sustainable manner, according to who we are.

Who are we? We are omnivorous and without meat we won't be even here. I will not go into details, since my knowledge is not professional but I have heard many times that meat eating [also very important - fish eating] gave us the spare energy to grow the brains that made us human. Cooking the food was the next revolution. With more concentrated source of food you need less of digestive system so you can shrink it while expanding other parts of the body. I see in my mouth the cutters of the rabbit, the canines of the tiger and the molars of the cow. And I ain't going to argue with 4 billion years of evolution and will oppose those who not only fight it but do it for the wrong reasons.

In conclusion I would rephrase the OP. "Forcing or manipulating people or society to not be omnivorous [as we want, please, are entitled to and, if you are religious, were made to be] is dangerous, useless and often stupid and could be therefore be called unethical".

Be sure. Few years ago Empire magazine ran a story "Triple Dutch" about Verhoven's Hollywood years. He was horrified by the book, did not finish it even, so it was a firm decision to make the movie a satire. I remember when I watched it first time I was rooting for the bugs. Only this movie and Avatar has had that effect on me. The uniforms were deliberately Nazi-like, the bathroom scene was intended to show that those soldiers are so brainwashed, so machine-like that they are not exhibiting even basic human traits such as being interested in the naked body of the opposite sex.

The whole interview was very interesting. First Verhoven gets shit from the Dutch film institute or some such because he made "too commercial movie" - meaning the most popular Dutch movie of all time - Turkish Delight. Revolted he goes to Hollywood. First movie is Robocop. The American critics hails the movie, pointing to the many layers in the story. Europeans do not get it that well. Then it's Total Recall. Originally he wanted to make something much closer to Dick's story but once Arnold joined Verhoven rewrote the whole thing to suit the big star. People on both sides of the pond like the movie.
And then he does troopers. To his absolute horror the Americans accuse him of being a Nazi and propagating their ideas [NYT article no less]. Deliberately or not all American critics decide to "misunderstand" the message. Europeans loved it though - there was not a single critic in Europe that did not get the message.

Fascinating story....

Eliminate all waste? In this economic paradigm which sole purpose is to encourage waste [money-goods-money-goods, as fast as we can because we take a slice at every transaction right?]?

I think you worry too soon. It's like worrying that the Sun will go out one day...

Just tried it - indeed no blockade [UPC customer]. Not that it was difficult to circumvent it...

What an amazing day - first at work great results after years of struggle [you know how it is in R&D], now this. Today is a good day for democracy ;)

Fancy! I am still playing extremely heavily modded Oblivion. I don't think Skyrim will run smoothly on my PC anyway. Also - I am hesitant to play "coded for console, rushed for PC" kind of thing. I mean Oblivion is unplayable on PC without modding; after modding it's one of the best games ever. I lesson to us all, perhaps?

Also - golden oldies like Alpha centauri, Rome total war [extremely heavily modded], Painkiller [when I feel like shooting something], GTA 3 [use it as a substitute to recreational driving - put my MP3 collection on the radio and just drive/float/fly]. I do have an old console - PS2 and use it to play the one and only game that warrants, in my opinion, purchasing a console - Gran Turismo. My wheel gear is twice as pricy compared to the console...

It changes lives. Literally. It raises awareness.

My decision to come and work in the Netherlands is entirely based on Cosmos. "travelers in time ans space" was the episode - it talks exclusively about the Dutch golden age. Saw it behind the Iron Curtain at an age of 12 or something. When I realized that this is a society where you could say "The world is my country, science is my religion" [quote Christian Huygens] in the times when Galileo was prosecuted in South Europe and threaten with death I though "this is it, I'm going there".

Of course, this famous Dutch spirit has been under attack recently as "non-profitable" - exactly the same decline in rational thought that we see much more pronounced in the US. So the Dutch also need new Cosmos, to remind them that it is because of that spirit they had the golden age. The moment they loose it, they've lost everything, since this country has nothing else [no resources, nor territory].

Health considerations and efficiency. At the end everyone wins if the workers are treated well - the company, the worker and society as a whole. There is nothing "left", "right" or anything remotely political in this. It's solid, scientific facts. And you know the thing about science, right - it works!

Where I work we are obliged to take minimum 15 days per year. That's working days, mind you, in essence it's 3 calendar weeks. My total vacation days are 28 working days [5 calendar weeks and a bit] + the option to buy 5 extra days. I always do it. Money is nothing compared to spare time...substituting 1 tablet per year for 1 full week rest - that's cheap!

Oh, and in case you are wondering - I work in a fully [high-tech] private company, shareholders and all, and we are bloody good in what we do.

In the larger picture - when the assholes say these worker protections are not profitable what they mean is that it's not profitable for THEM. But if you look over the whole society you will see the [enormous] profit everywhere. When the assholes get their way, they [as an example] force people to poverty and sub-standard lifestyles which results in increased health costs and increased crime rates but those are not paid by THEM, so society covers for their profits. Get it? This is going on in Europe [the assholes pushing hard against science and reason for personal profit] at the moment and if we are so stupid to succumb to these [imported] lies our societies will degrade....

Democratic control means state control?

That's a lie, perpetuated by both capitalist and the former "communists". I fail to see where is the state in "the means of production belong to the creators of the wealth".

man, if you wanna be a good troll you gotta read a bit more. Your attempted insult is applicable for the Chinese and Koreans.

Do you hear a lot of silverware crashing noise in the names Myamoto Musashi, Oda Nobunaga, Tkeshi Kitano just to name a few....

Trolls these days....what do they teach them in school?